It appears that there is a new rule out this season for the way that teams document their engineering process. In the past seasons, our team used an online shared document (engineering notebook) that all team members have access to and update their entries for the progress they made in any particular building session. We follow a certain template that defines the issues on hand, brainstorming ideas, prototype build, testing results and next steps. It’s not a team journal but a well formatted Engineering Notebook. When taking part in a competition, we simply printed out a hard copy of that online engineering notebook with team number on it and submitted it to the judges. That has been accepted without any issue.
This PDF document (https://www.roboticseducation.org/documents/2017/07/team-design-notebooks-and-team-journals.pdf) seems to differentiate an engineering notebook from a team journal. I totally understand the distinction that the PDF guide is trying to draw between the 2 very different documents. However, I am still not very clear on the required format of the Engineering Notebook. Are teams now required to use the paper version of the Engineering Notebook (see attached) that we get when we signed up for the team?
I would have no problem to use that paper version of Engineering Notebook. However, is each team supposed to only have one copy? When we signed up, we got 5 copies. I bought some additional copies because we have more than 5 team members. Now each member has a copy and I am asking them to write ideas and draw sketch on that notebook. But it’s not very organized.
Now for competition, do we just collect all the Engineering Notebooks from the team and send all the copies to the judge (placing them in some sort of binder). Then the judge will have read 7-8 different version of the Engineering Notebooks (one from each member).
Or are we supposed to consolidate all the paper Engineering Notebook into one and submitted it to the judges?
We still have a online Engineering Notebook that the team uses to document their engineering process. We find it’s a good way for the team to work off of a single document so that progress can be tracked easily. We are just wondering if we can still print a hard copy of that online Engineering Notebook and submit it to the judges like we did in the past. Thanks!
The major change to judging Notebooks in the VEX IQ program this year has been the addition of a 3 point bonus to encourage the use of bound notebooks.
Are teams now required to use the paper version of the Engineering Notebook (see attached) that we get when we signed up for the team?
Teams are not required to use the VEX IQ notebooks provided to teams upon registration. Teams may use any bound notebook of their choosing. The VEX IQ notebook is provided as a guide to teams.
However, is each team supposed to only have one copy?
Each team should maintain a single notebook to provide to judges at an event. This notebook should be maintained in real time as the team goes through the design process.
We are just wondering if we can still print a hard copy of that online Engineering Notebook and submit it to the judges like we did in the past.
While teams may choose to do this they are encouraged not to. Teams should remember that a print out of this type will not be eligible for the 3 point bonus awarded to bound notebooks.