RM BEST Teacher / Mentor Newsletter 9
2019 OFF THE GRID Game
End September 2019
NEW BEST National Registry Tool - Deadline for Student Registration is Practice Day
BEST National Registry Training Video - For Teachers
The BEST National Registry ( https://registry.bestrobotics.org/registration ): is now open and available for teachers to register their school (including entering school profile information). After the teacher registers the school Mentors and Guardian/Students may then register.
  • All individuals will need to know that Rocky Mountain BEST is the Hub to use and also know the assigned Team Number - available at this RMBEST.org 2019 Team link.
  • The Registry requires Teachers, Guardian/Student and Mentors to each create their own accounts using their email address and a password allowing them to login during the season to update and view information as needed.
Currently, 6 teams have started registering their teams. Please reach out if you are having issues with the tool.
2019 BEST Logo
Is your team interested in showing their Marketing and Booths and Spirit & Sportsmanship skills in addition to their robot and notebook? Currently, only 2 teams have signed up to participate.
OPTIONAL BEST Award Signup Deadline Monday MIDNIGHT
Sign up for BEST Award judging time slots prior to September 30th (midnight) using these links:
A new Everyone's Guide to the BEST Award is available with additional guidance including Engineering Notebook required by all teams.
BEST Official Rules Q&A Reminder
A reminder to have your team review the questions and answers at http://game.bestrobotics.org/qna . Currently 97 questions/answers have been posted.
NEW Colorado Hubs Award - More Information to Come
Front Range BEST's Hub Director is working with Kendrick Castillo's parents to establish a new Colorado BEST Hub award in honor of Kendrick. We plan to release more information next week on how the 4 Colorado BEST hubs will determine this award for each hub.
Energy Day FREE Family Festival - on Saturday
Saturday 28 September at Energy Day
East High School in Denver from 11 AM - 4 PM. Rocky Mountain BEST will have a booth.
  • Energy Day is Colorado's first free family festival
  • Showcasing exhibits focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
  • Exciting exhibits and interactive demonstrations
  • Teach students and their families about various forms of energy + how through STEM education they can find an exciting career in the energy industry.
Energy Day is sponsoring the inaugural  Kendrick Castillo Memorial Tournament  hosted by DSST Robotics - FIRST Robotics Competition FRC Team 2240 - Brute Force - founded in 2007 at DSST Stapleton High School.  This is an off-season FIRST Robotics Competition tournament, using the OFFICIAL playing field and equipment for the 2019 FRC game, Destination: Deep Space. The tournament gives High School teams in Colorado and the Rocky Mountain Region an opportunity to compete using their existing robots, and to reach out to the larger community of businesses and students in order to promote their teams and programs. The event has been named in honor of Kendrick Castillo, a STEM School student, who was deeply involved in Team 4418, STEM Impulse.
What will you see at Energy Day?
  • Kendrick Castillo Memorial Tournament - FIRST Robotics Competition
  • Denver Museum of Nature and Science will be there with Rockets
  • National Renewable Energy Laboratory created an escape room
  • Children's Museum of Denver is bringing their kinetics engineering exhibit showing force and motion
  • Colorado School of Mines Engineering Design Department is hosting an onsite engineering design contest (winners will receive cash Gift Cards!)
  • Industry professionals will be available to speak with and instruct students about career path choices
  • Energy Day Academic Program Awards Ceremony, recognizing and celebrating students for their hard work in Denver-area STEM competitions, will begin at 1:00
  • Raffling Gift Cards for educators!
  • Freebies and giveaways will abound, so come out and celebrate STEM!
Please Reach Out
Please reply if you have questions or if you are stuck or if you are looking for tips to help your team be successful.

ALSO the BEST Coach Survival Guide has numerous Teacher / Mentor tips. One example: "Students don’t naturally know any formal problem solving process. Someone will have to formally present one to the team. It won’t hurt to post it on the wall ." Check out the 9 steps below for a quick reference to the important Engineering Design Process for problem solving.
Engineering Process Quick Reference ( BEST Coach Survival Guide Page 22)
This summary highlights specific tips and cautions that the mentor should keep in mind at each step in the design process.
1. Carefully define the different tasks that must be performed to accomplish your goals:
  • You probably need something to make your robot mobile.
  • You probably need to pick up and place scoring objects.
  • You may need to move other objects around.
  • Encourage thought about both offensive and defensive strategies.
  • Do NOT encourage/allow destructive strategies.
  • Understand the capabilities of the components (motors, servos, etc.).
  • You might use preliminary brainstorming sessions to narrow the problem statement.
2. Brainstorm conceptual solutions to each of the sub-functions that make up the problem.
  • Generate as many different ideas as possible.
  • Don’t discount any idea, keep a verbal description of every idea.
3. Use a decision matrix to choose a conceptual direction.
4. Brainstorm embodiment solutions for each sub-function in your chosen conceptual direction.
5. After the brainstorming session, draw sketches of each of the solutions.
  • Your sketches should have enough detail to convey the idea to a non team member.
6. Narrow down the ideas, then use a decision matrix to make a final choice.
  • Simple construction is preferred.
  • Flexibility to accommodate different strategies is preferred.
  • Modular components are preferred (in case the design changes direction).
  • Reliability in an aggressive competition environment is required.
  • Minimized dependence on driver skill and forgiving of driver error is preferred.
7. Choose the best idea and then start making detailed drawings or prototyping the idea.
  • Design before building.
  • The drawing should have enough detail so that you know exactly what parts of the kit you will use. Most ideas seem reasonable until you get to the details.
  • Cardboard layers can be glued together to build rigid mock ups.
8. Make sure you finish building in time to do a LOT of testing.
  • Test sub-assemblies.
  • Practice driving the machine.
  • Practice driving some more!
  • The best teacher is our own mistakes…but it feels much better if those mistakes aren’t revealed on game day!
  • Redesign as necessary but do not disassemble a working machine for long periods of time. That time should be used for driving.
9. Document everything.
Rocky Mountain BEST
info@rmbest.org