COACH'S GUIDE | Plainwell Robotics C

Coach's Guide

Latest Revision: May 2023

Summary

Administrative responsibilities

Report to a PRC director.
Complete and submit a Volunteer Background Check Acknowledgement form.
Complete and submit a PRC’s Contribution of Robotics Grant Funds form.
Be familiar with PRC’s History, Bylaws, Work Plan, and Codes of Conduct.
Schedule and run team practices.
Order required robot parts and supplies through the PRC treasurer.
Notify the PRC treasurer of all changes to team membership status.
Notify the PRC treasurer of team’s tournament selections.
Report Code of Conduct violations to their PRC director.
Read email daily.

Coaching responsibilities and tips

Watch the YouTube video and/or read the manual regarding the challenge. You will get information about the game, how to score points, what the size restrictions are, the number of allowable motors, causes for disqualification and a number of other things.
Have your team brainstorm ideas on what mechanisms might be needed to achieve the challenge objectives.
View YouTube videos on mechanical engineering principles that provide a high-level overview of mechanisms, how they work and what they can do. This may help with brainstorming activities.
Provide an overview of what judges will look for in a notebook with samples of good and not so good notebooks.
Provide fundamentals.
Understand that there is a considerable amount of time being a PRC coach. The season goes from June-March.

Provide guidance for the team, but not do things for them.
Guide discussions of pros and cons of design considerations.
Keep team on track to ensure a working robot for competitions.
Selecting dates for competitions with parental/guardian input.
Make sure team is on time for queuing for matches during competitions.
Make sure team understands rules of the game.
Set team rules and expectations beyond those of PRC.

Website Resources

PRC and the Plainwell Community School District

The PRC operates independently, but in close coordination, with the PCS district administration. The District supports the PRC in several ways, but does not sponsor the Club. The PRC abides by all District rules and policies, but retains the right to extend them (e.g., our masking requirements during the pandemic were stricter). Also, coaches will be responsible for making the final decision regarding practices when school is not in session for any reason (e.g., snow days).

The District provides the PRC with practice space in the middle and high schools. To provide physical access to this space within District rules, the PRC treasurer is a compensated part-time employee of the District. The District also maintains a financial account for the exclusive use of the PRC’s treasurer. (The treasurer’s compensation is automatically deposited into the PRC account each year.)

By District policy and PRC Bylaws, only the PRC treasurer can make purchases on behalf of the Club, and must account for all purchases to the District’s Director of Finance.

Terminology

VEX Robotics, and its parent the REC Foundation, define a program as one or more robotics teams competing at the same level from the same school building. Thus, the PRC has five programs – one each for our three elementary schools, and one each for our middle and high schools.

Each program has a unique number that is shared by all teams in that program. Teams within a program are distinguished by a unique letter. Once a team number is created, it cannot change or be deleted. (It may not be used in a particular year, but it never disappears.) Each team is considered a rookie team once (the first year a number letter combination is used). Teams are considered as veteran teams in all years thereafter.

PRC team numbers (and letters currently assigned) are 11531 (C, T, Z) for Cooper, 11541 (K, R) for Starr, 11561 (G, M, R, Z) for Gilkey, 11581 (F, R, P, T, X, Y, Z) for the middle school, and 11591 (K, P, T, X, Z) for the high school. Each veteran team will be assigned a number and letter. By tradition, one MS team must adopt the name “Trial and Error” to honor the Club’s first VEX team. Rookie teams may select their unique team letter (A and B are disallowed by Club rule).

With one important caveat, team names can be changed at any time. The State of Michigan offers an annual robotics grant to qualified teams. Unfortunately, the State uses team names to determine qualification status. Thus, team names cannot be changed once our grant application is submitted – usually in late fall.

Reporting Relationships

Elementary school, middle school, and high school coaches will report to the Elementary School, Middle School, and High School Directors, respectively. These directors, all experienced PRC coaches, coordinate coaching issues and provide advice and counsel whenever necessary and as appropriate. Coaches are encouraged to bring any questions or concerns to the attention of their respective director. These directors will also assist their coaches whenever disciplinary issues arise, as detailed separately below.

Background Checks and Compensation Waivers

First-time coaches are required to complete and submit the PCS’s Volunteer Background Check Acknowledgement form when they receive their team assignments in May, and all PRC coaches and management team members are required to submit the form at the beginning of each school year in September. All new coaches also must complete and submit the PRC’s Contribution of Robotics Grant Funds form to the District Director of Finance.

Team Practices

Coaches should work with their team students and parents to determine schedules for practices. Practices can be held during weekday evenings and any time on Saturday and Sunday, but two adults must be present at all times for elementary and middle school teams. One adult is sufficient for high school team practices.

Coaches will be provided with FOBs to enable access to the middle and/or high school. A room key (together with the cabinet keys) is kept in a combination lock-box attached to the wall near the robotics room entry door in the middle and high schools. The room key also opens room in the middle school. The combination for the lock -boxes will be provided separately to all coaches.

Please ensure that the keys are returned to the lock-box and that all room and school doors are securely locked before leaving the building.

Qualifying Tournaments

Tournaments that presents awards that qualify a team to participate in the State Championship Tournament are called Qualifying Tournaments. Coaches should work with their team students and parents to determine their preferences for Qualifying Tournaments (using the Robot Events website described below). Three Qualifying Tournaments are permitted for each PRC team with the understanding that one of the three for middle and high school teams will be the PRC-sponsored tournament in November 2023.

The PRC treasurer, when notified in writing (preferably by email) of the team’s tournament choices, will proceed to register the team for those events. Coaches will not register their team for any tournament.

Robot Parts and Supplies

Coaches and their team members should prepare a list of the major parts (with VEX part numbers) that are expected to be required to build their robots, and that list should be submitted in writing (preferably email) to the PRC treasurer as soon as practical. VEX VRC V5 robot parts can be viewed at VEXRobotics.com/V5 and VEX IQ parts can be viewed at VEXRobotics.com/IQ.

All subsequent purchase requests for parts and supplies should be submitted in writing (preferably by email) to the PRC Treasurer in a timely manner. All parts and supplies must be purchased from VEX Robotics or Home Depot, and can be purchased only by the PRC treasurer. There will be no exceptions to this rule. Purchases made directly by anyone other than the PRC treasurer will not be reimbursed!

Comment: Anyone intending to make a Club-related purchase with private funds as a “gift” to the Club is better advised to make a contribution to the Club using its online RevTrak account, and then request that that contribution be used for a specific purpose. All such requests will be honored.

The Robot Events Website

Robot Events is a very powerful, but unfortunately, very complex and non-intuitive website which you will come to love and hate equally over time. We recommend you create an account for yourself and take some time to browse and test the various links. Later this summer, there will be a (somewhat difficult to find) page listing all Michigan tournaments for VRC and IQ teams. There will also be a set of pages dedicated to your team (assuming you have a registered account).

It is important, however, that all PRC coaches understand that this website is to be used to collect and view information ONLY. It is NOT to be used to change information or to register for a tournament – even though the website will allow you to do so!

We cannot emphasize this enough. By Club and District rules, only the PRC treasurer has the authority to register teams with the REC Foundation, register teams for tournaments, enter and edit team information, and respond to or approve other requests that come from the REC Foundation and VEX Robotics.

If you, as a coach, receive such a request from the REC Foundation or VEX Robotics, you should immediately forward that request to the PRC treasurer, with a copy to your director, together with your recommendation as to how to respond to the request.

Disciplinary Issues

A coach who experiences disciplinary issues with team members, or witnesses or learns of any violation of the PRC Codes of Conduct by a student, parent, or coach, is expected to inform their director accordingly as expeditiously as possible. The coach and their director should then decide the appropriate course of action to respond to, and resolve, the issue. At the discretion of their director, the PRC president should also be informed of the situation to give the president the opportunity to be involved in the resolution process.

Note: Based on past experience, it is possible that a coach will learn of a disciplinary issue or rule violation from a school administrator based on a report filed by a parent. Typically (again, based on past experience), the school administrator will turn the matter over to the PRC for resolution. When this occurs, the process of resolving the issue must involve the team coach, director, PRC president, and the parent (or parents) involved. As a courtesy, the school administrator should be advised of the final outcome.

Communications

All PRC communications will be via electronic mail. Consequently, it is vital that coaches and parents monitor their incoming email regularly – preferably daily. Coaches will not have PCS email accounts and will be able to communicate with students only through their parents. Coaches should expect periodic emails from their director, the PRC communications coordinator, and the PRC treasurer.

More About Qualifying and Championship Tournaments

Every PRC team is allowed to compete in three Qualifying Tournaments during the season. Teams are encouraged to participate in one early-season tournament, preferably in October or November.

When the team arrives, it will be required to check in. If your team has an engineering notebook it will be turned in when you check in. If the team does not arrive at all that same time, the student member with the robot should also have the notebook and be the person who checks the team in. You are not permitted to check in someone else’s team. After checking in, your team will find their table, which is indicated by your team number. This space of for team member and coaches only. Prior to qualifying matches, teams must present their robot for inspection to ensure that the robot is within the size requirements and is running the correct computer program.

For qualifying matches each team will be paired with another, different team to form their alliance for that match. A Robot Skills Challenge area will also be available. Teams can earn points through their autonomous program portion and their driving skills portion. Teams have three opportunities at each of these skills portions. Teams are highly encouraged to take advantage of the Robot Skills Challenge.

Engineering notebooks are scored by a panel of judges during the competition. These judges examine these notebooks and conduct interviews with teams. There are several awards that require the engineering notebook so it is just as important as the robot itself. The “Get Started Notebooking” website provides quite a bit of guidance as to the format of these notebooks, sample interviews, and the rubric used for judging.

Also, keep in mind that there will be quite a bit of time between matches. During this time teams can do the Robot Skills Challenge, watch other matches, work on their robot, etc.

After qualifying rounds, final team alliance selection is done. Teams choose their final alliance partner based on their rank after qualifying rounds. The top ranked team chooses their preferred partner, then the next higher ranked team chooses their partner, and so on. A team can decline to be a partner with another team but they can only decline once. Once final alliance sections are complete, final round commence in a single-elimination format until the champion alliance is determined.

There are three ways for teams to qualify for the Michigan State Championship:

Winning a qualifying award at an official event in the team’s Event Region (Michigan).
If the Michigan State Championship is not filled to capacity through qualifying awards, teams may qualify through the World Skills Standings sorted for the Michigan Region and by grade level. Teams invited through the World Skills Standings are invited in ranked order after the results of the last qualifying event in the Event Region have been posted.
If there is remaining capacity due to teams not accepting a formal invitation, the Michigan State Championship capacity may be lowered or teams may be invited from the Waitlist. This will be decided by the REC Foundation Manager.