Experience Gained

`	The experience of the Botball process and competition is really one not to be forgotten; it greets freshman with open arms, but continues to deliver for those of more experience. Even before the competition, the aspect of working in a team can serve as a grounds to build on one’s character, but the experience is only enhanced by the competition itself. The high school experience really would not be complete without a team extracurricular, and Botball grants this, and more, perfectly. A freshman can enjoy the experience due to how new it is, and learn what it’s like to compete, but past the first year, one might find themselves dedicating more and more time to their cause of winning first in the competition. In summary, the Botball experience provides a perfect start for undeveloped high school students to grow into outstanding individuals ready for college, careers, and more.

Documentation Process

	The documentation is an excellent addition to the Botball experience. It allows a team to reflect on their actions and experiences from the past years in their involvement with Botball. The Periods 1 and 2 documentations allows the team to consider their mistakes and build themselves into better members. Finally, Period 3 allows the team to look at their past selves and see how being on the team has advanced them into better individuals. All periods share the common ground of building the team in such a way where if they had made mistakes, they will surely not make them again.

Surprises

	The first surprise one would come across in the Botball competition process is how little time, it seems, there is between competition rules being announced and the competition itself. Since the team is in high school, they are focusing on their studies heavily, and time seems to fly by; it becomes quite easy to procrastinate, as school is a constant idea in the back of all members’ mind.
	This surprise is only heightened by the distance between the competition and APs. It becomes difficult to simultaneously study for APs and work on the team’s robots, so approaching the most important time for the team, school is even more destructive of our creative process. The opposite is also true, where AP studying becomes more difficult. By later years of high school, this is less of a problem, as the team grows to be used to it, but it is still a surprise for freshman, especially if they have more than one AP.

Advice for Future Teams

	To next year’s team, I would heavily advise focusing on completing each robot’s structure as quick as possible. Without a robot to work with, programmers cannot test their code, causing most of the testing to go into the last couple of weeks, which can be incredibly taxing if the program requires a lot of fine-tuning. Recommendations include either focusing on one robot until complete, or building a very barebones version that can complete all tasks required, but still must be worked on.
	It is also worth mentioning that the first semester, during which the competition rules have not been announced, should also support the second semester’s work, by building robots that can have various uses so immediately into the second year there is a good chance that a lot of the work is already done.
	Finally, work should not only be done at school, especially if the team doesn’t meet every day; over the weekend, or on school breaks, the team should meet outside of school and devote a larger amount of time on working on completing their robots.