2018 Denver BEST Robotics Teacher / Mentor Institute (TMI) Workshop 

TMI Workshop Tuesday - Thursday 17-19 July, 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM 

Teacher / Mentor Institute (TMI) is a FREE three-day educational workshop for teachers and mentors who plan to support competing BEST Hub student teams. 

Click on blue Register Now! button to register by 7 July.  If you need help finding a discounted hotel room, please email Linda.King@bestinc.org by 20 June.

Due to space limitations, we may need to limit the number of attendees.

NEW for Teachers in 2018

  We are APPROVED to offer 2 CEUs to qualifying teachers. Teachers requesting CEUs must complete the non-credit registration form and pay the $20 CEU document fee online at  https://commerce.cashnet.com/MSUDenverEM_EXT click Professional Development Courses link. Important: The registration deadline date for this course is 23 July 2018. CEU award documents are mailed directly to teachers at the address indicated on the registration form.

 Also teachers with one year BEST experience are eligible to apply for the Missile Defense Agency STEM-0001 grant for EXPERIENCED BEST teachers to cover expenses to attend this training. Grant application deadline is 1 June 2018. More information: MDA Grant Website and carefully review the instructions.

All training at Metropolitan State University of Denver, Aviation and Aeronautics Science Department - Seventh Street Classroom

Please forward this invitation to your mentors and teachers! 

Additional details below including a detailed map.

The TMI WORKSHOP uses hands-on sessions to build and compete with a mini robot built by participant teams to prepare you for this year's competition.  The 3-days are designed to be a shortened version of the 6-week student BEST season. Participants use BEST returnable robot kit electronics and mini robot consumable kits to build their robot and use provided easyC software to program the control of the robot. 

Hands-on sessions focus on using the Engineering Design Process to design, fabricate, program and test, and improve their mini-robot. Participants learn about the awards and judging process with peer reviews of their mini-robot robustness, team sportsmanship, and mini-engineering notebook. 

Closing out the workshop are additional BEST season details and panel discussions with experienced BEST teachers, mentors, and students.

We highly encourage each school to send at least one (1) representative. Three (3) teachers / mentors are allowed to attend per competing team. We recommend that at least one participant be a teacher. The other two participants may be teachers and/or mentors. A parent may be a mentor!  Students are NOT allowed to attend TMI.  

WORKSHOP SCHEDULE - details subject to change 

TUESDAY - 17 July

• 8:30 AM         START OF DAY 1 Training Goals & Expectations
• 9:00 AM         BEST Robotics Competition in STEM Education
• 9:15 AM         Form Teams and Enter Demographics Info
• 10:00 AM       TMI Kickoff: Game and Competition Intro & Rules
• 10:45 AM       TMI Kickoff: Safety Rules & Training
• 11:00 AM       TMI Kickoff: Kits Intro & Rules
• 11:30 AM       TMI Kickoff: Engineering Design Process Intro 
• 11:45 AM       Engr Design Process: Goal & Ask Steps 
• 1:00 PM         Engr Design Process: Imagine Step 
• 2:45 PM         Tools Intro
• 3:00 PM         Awards & Judging Intro
• 4:00 PM         Team Organization
• 4:30 PM         END of DAY 1

WEDNESDAY - 18 July

• 8:30 AM         START OF DAY 2 - Quick review
• 8:45 AM         Engr Design Process: Hardware, Software, Notebook Create #1
• 11:00 AM       Engr Design Process: Robot Test #1
• 11:30 AM       Engr Design Process: Hardware, Software, Notebook Improve #1
• 12:45 PM       Engr Design Process: Hardware, Software, Notebook Create #2
• 2:45 PM         TMI Practice Day: Engr Design Process: Robot Test #2
• 3:15 PM         Engr Design Process: Hardware, Software, Notebook Improve #2
• 4:30 PM         END of DAY 2

THURSDAY - 19 July 

• 8:30 AM             START OF DAY 3 - Quick review
• 8:45 AM         Judge Notebook
• 9:15 AM         TMI Game Day: Mini Competition
• 10:15 AM       Submit Most Robust & Sportsmanship Scoresheets
• 11:00 AM       Awards Ceremony
• 11:15 AM       BEST Competition Rules and Robotics Competition
• 11:45 AM       Safety Training Examples
• 12:15 PM       Forming a Team (Experienced BEST Competitor Panels)
• 1:15 PM         Advanced Engineering Design Process
• 1:45 PM         BEST Competition Awards and Optional BEST Award
• 2:30 PM         Advanced Tools
• 3:30 PM         Wrap Up
• 4:00 PM         END of DAY 3

Morning snack and lunch will be provided.

Workshop attendees are asked to bring a laptop and basic tools (e.g., electric drill, screwdrivers, wrenches, small saw, scissors, and tin snips) for each school.