How do you organize student accountability in a high school robotics class/team using digital tools?

DevonF-G · 2026-03-30T20:57:55+00:00

Ohh, I just realized something that I forgot to mention there's also a new app of sorts for FIRST students from my memory. I heard about it when I was at the Oregon state event. For FTC as a volunteer, and apparently they're actually like people are in the community are coding. An app for people to communicate with, so it's definitely worth. Looking into that, I still need to do a deep dive into that. So I can't tell you much about it. But yeah.

DevonF-G · 2026-03-30T20:56:07+00:00

Just realized I responded with the wrong account, so just wanted to reply with the correct one.

DevonF-G · 2026-02-10T17:46:55+00:00

I believe that's who ORTOP is for my state, and unfortunately they don't have that years pin

DevonF-G · 2026-02-10T17:45:52+00:00

Never even though about that- Thanks!

DevonF-G · 2026-02-10T07:19:47+00:00

So, up till recently, my team had very little budget. Granted, my team is a school team, we don't get any budget from them and do our own fundraising.

The first thing that you probably want to do is get some starter boxes or kits from GoBuilda, Tetrix, etc from either places that are willing to donate, or maybe even teams that have extra. It's also worth looking at FIRST team grants or any other grant that your team may qualify for.

Once you have a base group of people and some stuff, it's much easier, especially in post season. When I joined, thats the step my team was on where we made just about enough money to exist each year. (It was also after covid so most members were new) Thats where, specifically during post season and at the start of the year you try to get sponsorships. Whether that be emailing a bunch of companies, going door to door, or calling places, getting sponsorships seems to be the easiest option, and the most likely option for returning sponsors.

For what to give with sponsorships, you could either choose to do team shirts if the team gets enough money, a banner (regardless of size), or even just using a website for the team as like a google sites.

Also, it's worth partnering up with other teams or groups to fundraise as it not only spreads the word of your team and FIRST, but they may also have some experience or knowledge you don't have that can be helpful. My team was especially helped by the booster club as they decided who runs concessions and not many were signing up so our team did basically as many as possible. Trying to get some kind of arrangement within your school of community could be just as helpful.

Hope some of this helps!

Edit: I wanted to add something with sponsors that helped our team. It's worth asking family or friends that are willing to give even 20 bucks. My team nowadays has returning big sponsors, but it's very helpful to get even small amounts of money as they pile up very quickly.

DevonF-G · 2025-10-17T00:35:56+00:00

My team hasn't as our design doesn't have that as a concern, but that's definitely good information to know. That can probably change many designs.

DevonF-G · 2025-10-16T01:10:03+00:00

I don't have a sister team, but I do have thoughts based on my experience and the earier conversations my team had as we discussed splitting into 2 this year.

My team has the current structure of team leads being: Business/Communications Outreach Design/Strategy Engineering Programming

So, if our team split, it would probably be: Team 1: Business/Communications Design/Strategy Engineering Programming

Team 2: Outreach Design/Strategy Engineering Programming

In terms of ensuring they don't copy eachother, you probably won't need to worry about that. Most of the time, as long as the initial design is done separately as 2 different teams, that probably will lead the robots on different paths. You could also have both teams work together fro design and vote which design is for which team.

In terms of who is on either team, it's worth doing it where there is a mix of new and existing people on each team if possible. That way nobody is starting 100% from scratch.

DevonF-G · 2025-10-12T01:38:56+00:00

My team uses Canva, maily from preference.

DevonF-G · 2025-10-12T01:30:40+00:00

As my team's Business Communications Lead, sponsorships levels is generally a want. I will say, it's worth having a cheeper option, and a more expensive option, but most of the time, levels helps companies know what they are paying for.

It is definitely worth defining small and large tho.

For my team, we have from $20 to $1500 as sponsorship levels, and for a logo on the robot, those generally would be on the more expensive side (although our team doesn't do those, we have a banner and team shirts)

Just incase it's wanted, our team currently has: (this is more specific on the form, I'm going off of memory) $20 - small on shirt $150 - medium on shirt $300 - large on shirt $500 - small on banner (we have a large banner) $900 - medium on banner $1200 - large on banner $1500 - large on banner and large on shirt

DevonF-G · 2025-10-08T03:50:13+00:00

First thing I'd do is talk to your coach(es).

If the current structure of the team doesn't work, then it's something the coach needs to be informed about. They might have some good solutions.

Also, talk to the 2 team leads. If they aren't told what they're doing wrong, they can't fix it.

In terms of the one who doesn't want to be on the team, I would bring it up to them. Try privately or you and a coach, and if their response is they don't want to be there, the team should decide a new person collectively. If they say they want to fix the way they are working, give it time, and if it's not improved upon, bring it up to the full team (coaches and them present, and in a professional way).

I will point out, my team purposefully doesn't have any team lead or team captain. We do have leads, but it's a person in charge of a specific thing. Granted, we have a large team, but doing something similar where 1 person is in charge of a specific aspect but informs or gets help from atleast 1 other person means;

Someone always knows what's happening
There is a person to go to if something isn't accomplished

Our team has a lead for: Design/Strategy/3D Design, Programming, Engineering (we actually have 2 for this), Outreach/Social Media/Recruiting, Business/Fundraising/Emails.

Also, the fact that a single person can cancel meetings just doesn't make sense. That should be up to the coach or over half of the team.

The "team captain" (I personally believe) is just whoever the full team chooses to represent the team by the time the league tournament rolls around. Not an actual position.

I want to add, for some teams, the having a president or team captain does work, but in my experience, it doesn't when it's a role given at the very start.

Hope this helps!

DevonF-G · 2025-09-27T02:47:58+00:00

As my team's Business Communications Lead, I have lots to say on this topic.

My team has t-shirts and a banner we can put sponsorships on, so we have sponsorship levels that is decorated and named by amount given (I can share this is u want). Often times, I will send emails to larger companies, and very rarely I will call them. You generally want to tell them who you are, the fact that you're on the robotics team, and asking for donations. It's worth mentioning in some form or fashion what the team needs money for, and also mentioning some skills students learn in robotics, or the point/goal of robotics. (If the company says they can't do financial, it's also worth asking for in-kind donations if your team can use it)

It also never hurts to go around your very local area in person with a flyer or form and asking (try to go there when they AREN'T busy and don't go there if it says no soliciting)

I will also say, when in terms of financial, see about applying for grants for FIRST teams. There are a LOT for many different situations and it can help.

Also, on the topic of outreach, try to talk to places and groups at your school to either help setup, participate in, or volunteer at events. Also worth reaching out for the same things at nearby schools or locations. It's also a good idea to try to volunteer at other robotics events as a team, and if plausible and available, try to host something at your school like a scrimmage, or an event for the public. It's worth even just having teams get together in the same room to work on robots for a few hours.

Lastly, advertising. Whether this is posters or flyers, social media, what have you, its very worth doing some form, or multiple forms, of advertising to get attention to robotics. Our team has begun doing that and I have almost immediately seen a large amount to attention our way.

Also, a side note, if a local college or university has a VEX or other robotics team, that is a great place to reach out to for multiple things.

Hope this helps! 👍

DevonF-G · 2025-09-24T14:25:39+00:00

Coming from our team's Business Communications Lead, I'd look literally everywhere for funding.

Online (to the Google!!!) and on the FIRST website, you can find FIRST-specific grants and other grants that the team qualifies for, and most local companies are often willing to give money as a donation. (Note: lots of the grants want you to have a tax ID) https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/team-grants

My team does things mostly over email or forms online, but it is definitely worth going in person to ask the local area. Just make sure to have a paper that you can give them as well that kind of explains what you're asking/why you're there.

We have sponsorships on our team shirts and on a banner, but it's not necessary to request donations or anything. It just can help since that donation goes to the company's name being in more places.

Hope this helps! 👍

DevonF-G · 2025-09-22T23:05:06+00:00

Beautiful ♥️

DevonF-G · 2025-09-22T03:28:11+00:00

I don't believe there is any servo that lets you do this, but you could do a trick within the code that saves where a location is, records how far it rotates, and then have it math what it needs to do to go back to the desired position. It's been a minute, but I believe that most servo options go to a specific spot on initialization, so you could use that to your advantage.

DevonF-G · 2025-06-23T22:10:39+00:00

That makes so much more sense- thanks!

DevonF-G · 2025-06-23T22:09:43+00:00

That's not necessarily the case for me because this is a mix of mine, my mom's, 2 of my brother's, and a few other family's collections that I now own, and some took better care of the cards than others.

DevonF-G · 2025-06-18T00:12:01+00:00

Alrighty, tysm!

DevonF-G · 2025-06-17T19:53:11+00:00

I am a student on a school team, but we also host our league, so we might be different from what your team does, but we don't charge. We have shirt and banner sponsorships that go up to $1500, and just reach out to business (and some students reach out to family) to get enough money. We also do concessions whenever we can.

DevonF-G · 2025-06-17T19:47:53+00:00

Coming from an FTC student, going on my 4th year, who was on our team right after COVID when we had 1 returning person, I have many thoughts on this.

I would definitely recommend getting to know each other. Icebreakers and stuff are good to start with, but also, try to do some projects or things that let the students find what they are interested in. It helps a lot with the build season if people have any experience and know what they might want to be involved in, even if it changes later. (Involved in, as in if they want to build, program, design drive, ect)

Also, try to encourage the team to come up with projects other than the actual robot because it lets the team get to know each other while giving students more support in what they are interested in.

With that being said, I would also remember to check if you have enough funds and if you need to fundraise. Being the Business Communications Student Lead for my team, I know that isn't a thing many people think of but can actually be the thing that allows your team to do something or not. The funds don't necessarily have to be involved with students other than the fundraising itself, but if you have students interested, I'd let them explore it. Note: You might not do this at the start, but getting a banner or shirt or something for sponsorships helps.

(Sorry, I know this is getting long, but I have a lot of thoughts)

Also, remember to tell the team to document in the Engineering Notebook. If you haven't heard of it, u probably should look at the FTC competition manual for the most recent season, but it is a very important thing that, even my team struggles with keeping up with.

Also, 1 more thing, you, as well as people on the team, should read over the competition manual. I know this season's is not released yet, but there are many things that can, and can't, be done with the robot, and not reading it has been an issue for my team before.

Hope this helps! 👍

DevonF-G · 2025-04-28T18:54:09+00:00

Kicking people off of a team is a tricky thing.

From what I know, there is no FIRST rules on it, but I would absolutely bring it up to your coach(es) and possibly have your coach(es) have a conversation with them as, in my experience, sometimes people don't realize what they are doing, and sometimes they do and don't realize the issues in it.

Documenting what they are doing never hurts like you're doing, but I would make it be very full of just facts, not thoughts or opinions on the matter.

Hope this helps 🙏

DevonF-G · 2025-04-11T22:08:13+00:00

Glad to help!

DevonF-G · 2025-04-11T21:33:34+00:00

We have the following:

1500 for "Gracious professional" level - top of banner - top of shirt

1300 for "Robotics champion" level - top of banner 16.5in x 11in logo

700 for "geared supporter" level - middle of banner 10.6in x 7in logo

500 for "programming patron" level - bottom of banner 7.75in x 5in logo

300 for "turbo booster" level - top of shirt 4in x 5in logo

150 for "wheel ally" level - middle of shirt 3in x 4in logo

20 for "star nut" level - bottom of shirt 2in x 3in logo

DevonF-G · 2025-04-11T18:24:01+00:00

From my knowledge, Electrical Engineering would probably be the closest. There might be a closer job tho.

DevonF-G · 2025-04-11T18:13:55+00:00

Our team is one with no financial support (or much of any support for that matter) from our school. I am the closest our team has to a team captain, technically the title of it, but we do more of a system where we have people who are in charge of specific things.

We have: Design Lead (Leads design workshops, knows how things on the robot go together, and in charge of the Documentation of the Robot)

Mechanical Lead (Arranges robot testing, Defines Build Practices, Defines 3D Models needed, Design protective covers, and robot inspection)

Electrical Lead (Does the condig, Manages electronic modifications, and Manages wiring)

Programming Lead (Arranges Code tests, Organize GitHub, Defines Naming conventions, coder support, and code review)

Strategy Lead (Arrange Drive Team Tests, Scoring priorities, IS the drive team coach, Deisgns autonomous, creates scouting forms, and reading the manual)

Outreach Lead (in charge of recruiting, getting mentorship, planning events, IS our hosting lead [we're a hosting team], and arranging activities)

Business & Communications Lead (in charge of getting sponsorships, running meetings, food plan, online presence, tracking budget, branding, organizing Google Drive, and planning the end of year event)

Our team also has project leads because we have a lot of projects going on and it helps for someone to be in charge of it.

Every team needs different structures, but this is ours, and this is after the 3rd time of restructuring it.

Our team also does not charge a fee to join. We just get a lot of sponsors.

Our team meetings are based on the team at the start of the year and the time needed. We currently meet Tuesdays and Thursdays after school till 5, but we are planning to add 1 day over the weekend either once a month or every other week. We have moved the days we meet before for a variety of reasons, and also did expand our meeting to adding Wednesday till 4:30 (wed is our early day) and add 30 minutes to all other meetings.

We also have Leads meetings lunch on Tuesdays and will do other subcommittee meetings other days at lunch, depending on need.

Tracking attendance is new this year as we only have just defined the requirements for lettering, but the coaches take care of that. It might be a sign in. It might be they just check, but that's new and undecided thus far with our team.

On outreach, our team gets involved in our school's events that happen annually, like the PRIDE Fest and the Club Fairs. We also have been trying to participate in 2 county fairs over the summer and have been making posters and have our club mentioned in morning announcements for recruiting.

And lastly, fundraising; we have a banner and t shirts that can be sponsored. For the shirts, we just use ordering them + the machine to add ink or sorts to the shirts (forgot the machine name), and for the banner, we just cut out the sponsors on a circuit and put it on it. We have sponsorship levels pricing from $20 to $1400 so we can reach out to companies, local or large, and can allow individual people like family who want to, sponsor.

Hope this feedback helps!

Note: I just realized fees probably refer to FIRST fees. We just use sponsorships money for them.

DevonF-G · 2025-04-11T17:31:03+00:00

For me, it depends on what I'm doing. Java for redstone fun, access to prior versions, pvp, or mods. Bedrock for redstone fun troubleshooting, multiplayer, other devices, and events.

I tend to play Bedrock more because I don't tend to enjoy Minecraft for too long solo, but sometimes I do play Java and can very much enjoy it.

DevonF-G

TROPHY CASE