Hello to the FTC teams in Illinois!

If you have not met me, I'm Keith Hall, the FIRST Senior Mentor for Illinois.  My role is to support the teams.  Experience has taught me that in a region as large as Illinois, it is an impossible job for just one person.

That's where FIRST Gracious Professionalism and Cooperatition shine.  Since there are so many teams and only a few FIRST staff members, the only way to make sure that teams get what they need to succeed is to encourage everyone make it a priority to help each other.

That help can be as simple as pointing the person to a web site that has the information they need.  It could also mean organizing several teams together to hold training, workshops, and even off-season scrimmages.   This doesn't have to be expensive.  For example, teams can schedule a room at the local libraries to learn about programming together.  Teams with fields can host short "check-up" clinics to help other teams and play a few practice rounds.  Several long-established teams already do these sorts of things, but to build a stronger FTC community we need more!

To locate teams in your area visit http://www.usfirst.org/whats-going-on  select teams, FTC, add a state, zip code and a distance.  Once you find the teams around you, if you are having difficulty making contact please let us know, we will make the introductions.

So if you are having issues, please let us know!  If you would like to help other teams, please let us know!  We all want to see all the teams give the judges some really tough choices at competitions, and see some really competitive robots!   Don't forget, the judges do give awards for community service and involvement. Get involved in creating your own FTC community in your area and inspire your students to excellence!

Anyone can learn robot c-see below

1.     Learn Robot C http://www.robotc.net/wiki/Tutorials/Getting_Started/Getting_Started_with_NXT_and_TETRIX

2.     The Robot C web lessons with video tutorials http://www.education.rec.ri.cmu.edu/previews/robot_c_products/teaching_rc_tetrix_preview/index.html

3. Earn a ROBOTC Student Certification this Summer for FREE! Don't forget - Free ROBOTC Live Trainings Start this Week!  Every student who completes a ROBOTC Summer of Learning course will have the opportunity to take a ROBOTC Student Certification Exam! This certificate will represent a student’s programming and robot problem solving accomplishments.

Throughout the summer course, the student will earn badges as they successfully complete challenges. Each badge contains information to help others understand what a student knows: who awarded it, who recognizes it, when they earned it, links to example student code, their videos, their scores, the types of questions they answered, or other information designed to show off their accomplishments.  At the very end of the course, students will have the opportunity to take an exam. This certification exam will consist of 125 questions to be completed in 100 minutes. Students will need to earn a score of 70% or higher in order to earn the certification.

Every student enrolled in one of our Robotics Summer of Learning class will have the option of taking the ROBOTC for LEGO or the ROBOTC for VEX student certification exam. Sign up for a class today: