[FONT=inherit]The Amaze Award is presented to a team that has built an amazing, high-scoring robot that clearly demonstrates
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[FONT=inherit]overall quality.
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[FONT=inherit]Key criteria:
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[FONT=inherit]• Robot design is consistently high scoring
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[FONT=inherit]• Robot demonstrates a solid mechanical design and is robustly constructed to fulfill its designed task
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[FONT=inherit]• Robot programming is consistently effective and successful
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[FONT=inherit]• Students understand and explain how they worked together to develop their robot
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[FONT=inherit]Still trying to figure out how a middle school Vex IQ team was awarded this in a competition where
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[FONT=inherit]- There were (at least) two other team that consistently outscored them by, on average, 56.5 and 68.5
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[FONT=inherit]- Their best score was 13 and 37 points less than those other teams worst scores.
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[FONT=inherit]- Their score in the finals wouldn’t have won the elementary division at the same tournament
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[FONT=inherit]- They had no autonomous program
There shouldn’t be, the judges are asked to give only one judged award per team. This is in addition to skills or tournament champion awards. Although this is not always followed, but is the preference.
There are many factors than can go into judged awards and influence judges, At a recent event we had a team that wouldn’t disengage from video games they were playing on the computer in the laptop to discuss the robots design with the judges as the came through the pits. This may be an extreme example but it really tool them out of contention for design and perhaps other judged awards.
Basically by point is that without everything that could have been in front of the judges from your event it is really difficult to determine why you got the perception that a team was passed over for an award.
At our events everything can be factored in and information such as the field notes to judges are valuable. See the link.
When I hold the drivers meetings I do stress that you are being judged all of the time on and off the field. We monitor the pits and practice boards for both positive and negative behaviors.
IMO this is one of the strengths of the VEX program, in that we are looking at the process and the kids in the team and alliance interaction vs robots and their ability to perform the challenge.
I was the Judge Advocate at the PA States last weekend. The team that won our Amaze award had good marks in other areas, but what blew us away was the “[FONT=inherit]Students understand and explain how they worked together to develop their robot” [/FONT]
Judge activities are hard. Since you are interested in it, let me suggest you sign up now to help out.
I’ve been volunteering with the robotics program at my children’s middle school for three years. On top of being one of the main coordinators for our “home” tournament, I end up helping out in some capacity at almost every tournament we go to. I’m not saying judging awards is easy. And I’m not complaining that my kid didn’t get it. There were any number of teams that could have one the award and I would have been fine with it. Seeing *all of them *passed over for a team that clearly did not deserve it is my issue.