As many of you know, I have been giving feedback on judging presentations to teams each year. After reviewing hundreds of presentations, I decide to compile some of the frequent feedback I have been giving. I hope these high-level tips are helpful to your team.

Core Values:

1. Give specific examples. E.g. Don’t just say, “We all work well together”. Give examples of specific situations where you had to learn to work together during the season. Let different students provide their own authentic examples if possible. Go beyond “We impacted our community with our innovation project”. Think of how Discovery, Impact, and Innovation can go beyond the Robot and Innovation Project.
   

Here are some common examples teams give (often placing emphasis on the highlighted word):

• “We DISCOVERED Scratch programming”
  
• “We IMPACTED our robot by choosing the big wheels”
  
• “We came up with an INNOVATIVE idea to help more people participate in this hobby.”
  

Every single team is doing the same thing - they all learnt a programming language and used a wheel. They all worked on an Innovation Project. Consider these statements instead:

• DISCOVERY: “Sally discovered that even though she thought she hated coding, she could program our robot by the end of the season”
  
• IMPACT: “We impacted our community by participating in a STEM showcase at our local library where 100 children got to learn about robotics by programing robots we brought.”
  
• INNOVATION: “The Virtual Reality Artist mission gave us a lot of trouble. For weeks we struggled. Jen thought of x solution. James thought of y. We tried them all, but we still could not activate the model reliably. We didn’t give up. Then Sally came up with the clever idea to z and it worked!”
  

1. The Judging Flowchart mentions that Core Values is only for questions and answers. As a result, many regions may not allow you to give a formal presentation. Check in advance before spending time on a presentation.

2. Most teams try to incorporate the core values into other presentations. Think about how you can demonstrate the core values even in robot or innovation project (e.g. maybe you had to apply teamwork to create a strategy or solve a mission. Maybe you mentored another team and helped them with a problem.)

Innovation Project:

1. Identify: Many teams fail to mention their research sources. Incorporate the information into your script and make sure you mention a variety of them. “According to the CDC website…” “We did a survey of 300 users and…” “Our expert from P&G said that…” Make sure that your sources are of good quality and specify them (e.g. not just “we did a Google search”).

2. Design: Most teams do not explain the different ideas the team had for the challenge and how one was picked. Also most teams do not discuss a “plan” (as mentioned in the rubric).

3. Create: Some teams do not explain their prototype enough. Remember that judges are much older than you are and cannot see text/drawing on a board far away. Bring your prototype or poster board closer and explain (and show). Many teams also do not mention how they changed their solution after presenting it to an expert.

4. Poster boards are not effective unless you use them well. They need to be brought closer to judges and specific sections need to be pointed out as relevant. If you cannot do this due to the size of your team, consider smaller posters (or props) that each student can hold and come closer. Remember that any visual aid should enhance a presentation, not be the presentation.

5. Many teams have a solution that already exists in the market. Make sure that you discuss why your solution is different or an improvement. You never know who is your judge. They may be an expert in that field, already have a similar device installed in their home, or read about it in the news. Compare your solution to what exists.

6. Make sure that you clearly state your problem and that it relates to the season’s prompt. It is your job to convince judges that your topic fits the theme. Pick a problem then develop a solution for it, rather than starting with a solution.

Robot Design:

1. Identify: Most teams forget to talk about how everyone was involved in building/coding and skills learned.

2. Design/Create: Most teams do not explain their “plan” and do not explain their code. It is not enough to just say “we use my blocks” or that some code is stuck on a poster board. Explain your best/favorite code and how it is innovative, uses sensors, makes the robot act as intended. You can even talk about how you had to iterate that code. Most teams also do not pick up the robot and attachments to show them to the judges. Some judges may not know the mission names. Some may have never seen an FLL robot before or know LEGO parts. Bring them closer and show what you mean.

3. Iterate: The focus of Robot Design is process and a big part of process is how you came up with ideas, tested them, and improved them. Most teams do not present “evidence” of “repeated testing”. If your team uses an engineering journal, it is a good idea to not just say “more information is in our Journal”. You need to actually show specific pages and their relevance. Show the “evidence” of testing to your judges.

4. Communicate: Have more than one student explain the robot. Remember that you do not have to talk about every run and every attachment. Pick and choose what you want and spend time to explain the mechanisms, code, innovation, etc. thoroughly.

Robot Game:

1. Team members who are not speaking should still pay attention to their teammates

2. If you use slides, do not make them full of text. No judge will have time to read all that text even if you bring it close.

3. Present to someone who does not know your work well and see what they think. Often times, this is the best way to know what you are unclear on and what areas you might want to trim.

4. The rubrics are the main guide to scoring well. Make sure that your presentation addresses all the components of the rubric. It is a lot to cover in 5mins, but it is possible.

5. Memorizing your presentations is helpful, but not required. You can use notes to help you remember your lines, but reading all your lines makes your presentations less engaging as you do not make any eye contact with your judges.

6. Many regions will not let you leave behind items (gifts, brochures, or notebooks). Even if allowed, do not assume that any judge will read anything after you leave the room. If something is important to your presentation, it is your job to bring it up during the judging session.

Good Luck at your event!