Design Award - LINK TO RUBRIC (as of 8/16/19)
The Design Award is based off team engineering notebooks and interview with the judges. A top scoring design notebook will include:
- Identify the game and robot design challenges and goals
- Identify the game challenge or robot design challenge in detail at the start of each design process cycle with words and pictures. States the goals for accomplishing the challenge
- Brainstorm and diagram or prototype solutions
- Lists three or more possible solutions to the challenge with labeled diagrams. Citations provided for ideas that came from outside sources such as online videos or other teams.
- Select the best solution and plan
- Explains why the solution was selected through testing and/or decision matrix. Fully describes the plan to implement the solution.
- Build and program the solution
- Records the steps to build and program the solution. Includes enough detail that the reader could recreate the solution following the steps in the Notebook.
- Test solution
- Records all the steps to test the solution, including test results
- Repeat design process
- Shows that the design process is repeated multiple times to improve performance on an individual design goal or overall robot or game performance.
- Usefulness and repeatability
- Records the entire design and development process in such great clarity and detail that the reader could recreate the project's history and build the current robot from the notebook.
- Record of team and project management
- Provides a complete record of team and project assignments
- Written in ink
- Notes from team meetings including goals, decisions, and accomplishments
- Name or initials of author
- Each page numbered and dated
- Design cycles easily identified
- Table of Contents and/or Index so anyone can easily locate needed information
- Notebook construction
- Five (5) points if notebook is bound. Notebook must have been bound before any entries were made in it.
Team Design Notebooks vs Team Journals - LINK TO ARTICLE
The Engineering Notebook is intended to be the place where teams document their design process. The format of the notebook is discussed below. The Engineering Notebook is the document that the Judges use to evaluate teams for the Design Award. A Team Journal is where a team tells the story about itself to others.
Engineering notebooks over the big ideas addressed above but they also include smaller details as well:
Engineering notebooks over the big ideas addressed above but they also include smaller details as well:
- bound quad-ruled notebook is the preferred format
- never edited
- team # on the cover
- written in ink with errors crossed out using a single line; NEVER remove a page
- pages numbered, dated, and signed/initialed by student
- a table of contents
- team meeting notes as they relate to the design process
- design concepts and sketches
- pictures
- notes from competitions regarding observations that should be considered in the next iteration of their design
- team members’ observations and thoughts on their design
- team organization practices as they relate to their design process
- any other documentation that a team finds useful as related to their robots design
- notes on the robot’s computer code
- how the code is designed to interact with the robot’s mechanical systems to create an overall integrated system
- placement of sensors for software feedback systems and algorithms used for the control of the robot should be clearly documented
- computer code or CAD drawings should be glued or taped into the notebook
Other Helpful Resources
- Renagade Robotics - Page on Engineering Notebooks ... EXCELLENT resource
- KIWIBOTS Webpage on Engineering Notebooks
- YouTube Video - "The Officialish Guide To An Awesometacular Vex Design Notebook" by VEXRoboticsTeam4184G
- Google Drive Folder of resources I have compiled
- Sample VEX IQ Engineering Notebook from 2016 World's Competition
- 2017 Fort Mill VEX IQ Workshop Breakout Session Presentation
- Engineering Design Process from Mr. Campbell "Myth Badger"