Session 8
Before You Begin This Session
Congratulations! You got your team through their first V5RC event! The goal of this session is to celebrate that accomplishment, no matter what the outcome on the leaderboard, and guide your team to reflect on their experience to get ready for their next event.
Encourage your team to celebrate their learning! No matter how their matches played out, or if they won awards or not, your team learned valuable lessons from their competition experience. Help students think more broadly about what success means, and keep the reflection discussion positive.
Congratulations! You competed in your first V5RC event! You learned valuable lessons throughout your competition day experience. In this session, you will reflect on your competition experience with your team. You will talk about what went well, including what you learned from your own experience and from watching and interacting with other teams. You will then consider how you want to apply that learning moving forward this season.
Before you begin, make sure you have your engineering notebook ready to document your reflections and discussions.
Watch the video below to get started.
Activity: Reflecting on the Competition
Now that you have your first V5RC event under your belt, it's time to reflect and talk about how it went. Together with your team, you'll discuss your experience and make a plan for how you want to move forward to prepare for the next competition.
Use the questions below to guide your reflection and discussion. Be sure to document your reflections and plans in your engineering notebook.
What went well?
Begin by sharing your favorite parts of the event!
- What went well for you and your team?
- What was a pleasant surprise?
- What positive experiences or interactions did you have throughout the day?
What did you learn from another team?
Next, think about other teams and robots that you saw throughout the day, and your own alliance partners.
- What is something you learned from your alliance partners?
- What did you learn from watching other teams compete?
- What is something you learned about robot design from seeing other robots?
How can you take what you learned and apply it moving forward?
Now, think about what you want to do in preparation for your next competition.
- What is one strategy idea you want to try to apply? What would you need to do to accomplish that?
- What is one robot design idea you were inspired by? How could you bring that idea to life?
- Is there anything you want to to change or improve in your engineering notebook moving forward? What would help you do that effectively?
Now that you have your first V5RC event under your belt, it's time to reflect and talk about how it went. Together with your team, you'll discuss your experience and make a plan for how you want to move forward to prepare for the next competition.
Use the questions below to guide your reflection and discussion. Be sure to document your reflections and plans in your engineering notebook.
What went well?
Begin by sharing your favorite parts of the event!
- What went well for you and your team?
- What was a pleasant surprise?
- What positive experiences or interactions did you have throughout the day?
What did you learn from another team?
Next, think about other teams and robots that you saw throughout the day, and your own alliance partners.
- What is something you learned from your alliance partners?
- What did you learn from watching other teams compete?
- What is something you learned about robot design from seeing other robots?
How can you take what you learned and apply it moving forward?
Now, think about what you want to do in preparation for your next competition.
- What is one strategy idea you want to try to apply? What would you need to do to accomplish that?
- What is one robot design idea you were inspired by? How could you bring that idea to life?
- Is there anything you want to to change or improve in your engineering notebook moving forward? What would help you do that effectively?
As students are sharing their thoughts from the competition, encourage them to remain positive. Even if they placed last in the standings, they still made it to their first competition - and that in and of itself is a success!
Remind students that they do not need to document everyone's thoughts word for word in the engineering notebook, but someone should be responsible for capturing the main ideas or bullet points of the conversation. This documentation will serve them well as they move forward to continue iterating on their robot, strategy, and code.
Wrap-up
Think back to the season goals you set in the first session. Did your competition experience move you closer to those goals? What can you do in preparation for the next competition that will help you reach your goals?
You can return to sessions 4, 5, and 6 to help you iterate on your strategy, robot design, or code as you try to implement your ideas for improvements. After your next competition, return to this session to help you reflect and prepare once again.
The following resources can help you throughout the season:
Good luck and have fun this season! 
Think back to the season goals you set in the first session. Did your competition experience move you closer to those goals? What can you do in preparation for the next competition that will help you reach your goals?
You can return to sessions 4, 5, and 6 to help you iterate on your strategy, robot design, or code as you try to implement your ideas for improvements. After your next competition, return to this session to help you reflect and prepare once again.
The following resources can help you throughout the season:
Good luck and have fun this season!
Guide students to use the resources in this unit to help them as they continue with their season. The following resources can help you as you support your team this season:
If you have reached the end of your season, and are looking for ways to capitalize on students' excitement around robotics and STEM learning, these resources can help you explore further:
- TeachV5.vex.com can help you build your coaching and teaching skills with V5, and show how you can incorporate V5 STEM Labs and Activities with your team.
- VEXcode VR resources can support students who want to level up their coding skills.
Most importantly, have fun with your team and enjoy being a part of their STEM learning journey!
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