Write It Do It B/C

[hscmom]

A few doer tips? Maybe these are really obvious... I don't know.

1) Sometimes, turn off the timer and grab a highlighter. As you work through the build, stop to underline things you want to talk to the writer about. Was something especially well written? Or, hard to understand?
2) On days you don't work with your partner, practice your measurements (angles, distances). Draw two dots 8 cm apart (guess and then measure). Arrange two sticks at 40 degrees (guess then measure). The writer should practice measuring things.
3) If you tend to lose your place in the directions (say, you just did step 5 and you skip 6 and jump to 7), consider grabbing an item and using it as a marker that you move through your instructions.
4) Obvious, but don't be distracted by others in the room. Learn to zone in on your own work.

[samlan16]

Does anybody have some tips for the doer?
Thanks!

I guess this also applies to the writer, but what my team does (6 people doing WIDI) is we all write and then build each others' instructions. We separate into two groups so we do not have to build the same structure that we wrote. This way, we know what the builder wants to see in our instructions, and we are more precise. We typically edit each others' instructions to show that.

[Boombloxer2]

To be honest there are probably bigger differences between regions/competitions than between divisions, but C is usually more complex. You're (hopefully) not going to see a lot of Legos or K'nex at C level, but then again who knows you might.

Ya SURREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. LAWL

[samlan16]

To be honest there are probably bigger differences between regions/competitions than between divisions, but C is usually more complex. You're (hopefully) not going to see a lot of Legos or K'nex at C level, but then again who knows you might.

Ya SURREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. LAWL

I have had both Legos and Knex before, but then again one of those was at the GA state tournament and the event was thrown out, so it's not like it mattered. XD

[GoofyFoofer]

To be honest there are probably bigger differences between regions/competitions than between divisions, but C is usually more complex. You're (hopefully) not going to see a lot of Legos or K'nex at C level, but then again who knows you might.

Ya SURREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. LAWL

I have had both Legos and Knex before, but then again one of those was at the GA state tournament and the event was thrown out, so it's not like it mattered. XD

What do you mean, "the event was thrown out"?!?!

[hscmom]

"The event was thrown out" means that the trajectory teams stepped in and shot the teams, the pencils, the papers and the offending structures to the next county...

Sometimes, if there is a problem in how an event was run, so that the event cannot be scored fairly, the event will not play into the final scores. So 22 event scores, not 23, will be added together.

[GoofyFoofer]

Oh, okay.
That is not unlike what happened to Metric Mastery at my state last year.

[aditi]

Does anyone have any tips for the writer?

[zyzzyva980]

As a doer for a couple years, here's what I wanted from my writer:

Be consistent, concise, and complete.

• Consistent: Try to use the same type of instructions throughout. Don't start with cardinal directions and switch to clock faces halfway through. Be robotic and methodical in keeping everything exactly the same (once you name something, don't refer to it by anything else; that could be confusing.
• Concise: Obviously you want to have everything included, but be sure you have enough time to finish everything. You can always go back and add more later, if you have time at the end. Take advantage of abbreviations, but always specify them at the beginning.
• Complete: Every detail matters. Be sure to include how each piece relates to other pieces- those relationships matter a lot. Be as detailed as possible without wasting time.

Also, it's helpful to the doer to include broad, general descriptions of the entire model throughout the writing. This will help them make sure they're on the right track.

[aditi]

As a doer for a couple years, here's what I wanted from my writer:

Be consistent, concise, and complete.

• Consistent: Try to use the same type of instructions throughout. Don't start with cardinal directions and switch to clock faces halfway through. Be robotic and methodical in keeping everything exactly the same (once you name something, don't refer to it by anything else; that could be confusing.
• Concise: Obviously you want to have everything included, but be sure you have enough time to finish everything. You can always go back and add more later, if you have time at the end. Take advantage of abbreviations, but always specify them at the beginning.
• Complete: Every detail matters. Be sure to include how each piece relates to other pieces- those relationships matter a lot. Be as detailed as possible without wasting time.

Also, it's helpful to the doer to include broad, general descriptions of the entire model throughout the writing. This will help them make sure they're on the right track.

Thank you so much!! Most of that information I knew already but it was all helpful. The last point you had, to include broad descriptions on what the model looks like, that's an excellent point. Thank you for sharing that with me, I will most certainly use it. What about if you are shown something you have never seen before? Or if to write the model, to understand it, you have to touch it. Then what?