Okay- @72837A talked about this really well, let me just unload it more in depth
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Yeah, you’re often encouraged to create a VEX engineering notebook of your own! Based off of the interactions I’ve had with judges, they usually like seeing notebooks that don’t look straight off of a template. Some like it to be more creative, some like it to look professional. You do you, you can never know a judge’s preference- But in the end the judge’s preference SHOULD NOT matter, as long as you put in the right information into your notebook and stuff it with your daily logs, your design process, your problems, (etc, etc) it would be fine.
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Canva would be allowed, as far as I know- there are absolutely no limitations to how you create your notebook. I was once at a competition and someone sent in their notebook as a digitalized paper notebook (As in they put their notebook that they did physically and on paper and put it through a scanner or something of the type)
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In the top right corner of Canva’s website there is a download/import button. You’d click that and it would offer some options on your importation- I recommend something like an PDF, or a pptx. If there are any issues with images, put it through google slides or Word (something that you can upload it into) and fix it up, download it again and all should be fine)
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There is always criteria with notebooks- Drives me crazy! Let me sum up most of the notebook criteria from the judging guide for you (at the best of my ability)
EN1- Purpose (this basically means that there must be a purpose/ use for everything that is in the notebook)
EN2- The notebook must have been worked on by the students in the team. Adults are not allowed to work on the notebook (or any part of VEX robotics) BUT they are able to be looked up to about why a certain thing happened the way it worked (rely on the general VEX V5 game manual of 2025 for the adult parts)
EN3- Generally, academic honesty should make sense. But- it means that nothing should be plagiarized, ‘staged’, or just put in to only impress the judges.
EN4- No use of AI tools- Especially to how your using Canva- I know it has that big shiny button that allows you to generate images or fix up messes in your document but AVOID it- if you use it people can tell most of the time, it becomes obvious when it looks like it wasn’t a ‘child’ or atleast a student didn’t write what was put in.
EN5- If a judge finds that the entries or anything in your notebook are dishonest, disrespectful, seem plagiarized, or look as if done by AI or an adult, it may be submitted as a code of conduct violation.
EN6- Remember, the engineering notebook needs to include the design process, thats one of the main points (define the problem, generate concepts, design solution, build and test, reflect design, and present the solution)
EN7- The engineering notebook is a requirement for MOST- not all, judging awards.
EN8- Teams MAY use any format of notebook that fits their team (so, canva would be allowed!)
EN9- Just follow the basic expectations when creating your engineering notebook
EN10- Appendices are not judged, but in the appendices put things like your code (screen shots) a CAD model, etc etc
EN11- Maintain it’s quality- Make sure it looks kind of neat, Make it atleast comprehendible- Like, don’t stuff your pages, leave small spaces so it feels less suffocating.
EN12- The format of the submission of your notebook must be in the format your competion asks for (usually included in the Robotevents website)
EN13- If you write your notebook in a language that is not commonly used in the area it is required that you send in a translated copy as well
EN14- Judges judge the content, not the looks.
EN15-There are laws put on engineering notebooks to protect the ideas inside of them, this prevents judges from taking any info or photos (or sharing ideas that they saw from the notebook) to people, as the general laws on engineering notebooks still apply. (confidentiality aggreements)
EN16-Digital notebooks must be easy and able to open in a web browser
EN17- Notebooks will be submitted, stored, reviewed, and returned. (I like to call this the silly SSRR of notebooks)
EN18-Judges must ALWAYS have access to the notebook, no take back-sies during the event.
EN19- Judges don’t read notebooks in random orders, they sort them and do reviews
EN20- Judges can not and should not click on links/ QR codes going out of the engineering notebook ( so try to refrain from putting links into the notebook unless its going to a new tab in the notebook)
EN21- Judges use an official checklist of qualities to find in the notebook (you can probably find it somewhere on Vex lol) and grade you off of that.
EN22- Judges should spend roughly the same time on each notebook to promote fairness and all.
EN23- Anything unusual or suspicious inside of your notebook is usually not allowed or it breaks code of conduct
no way i just wrote all of that to remember the judging guide had its own things on each thing AUGHFDJKGHDFJKG oh yeah well hope this helps 