2023 Denver BEST Robotics Teacher / Mentor Institute (TMI) Workshop 

 ONLINE Pre Class Reading and Exercises - Recommended 

available online Sunday 4 June through Friday 7 July 
(approximately 20 hours effort - required for CEU / Professional Development hours)

3-Day IN PERSON Sessions 
11-13 July  
Tuesday & Wednesday, 8:15 AM - 4:30 PM,
Thursday 8:15 AM to 4:00 PM
We will start promptly at 8:30 AM each day

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

Click on blue Register Now! button to register no later than 30 June.  If we do not have 4 participants signed up by this deadline, we plan to cancel the workshop.

  Front Range Community College is supporting our offering of Colorado 4.0 CEUs / 40 Professional Develpment hours to qualifying teachers. To receive the credit: quizzes and exercises from both ONLINE pre-class material and IN PERSON Sessions Participation are required.  TMI participants will use a link to register and pay the $30 fee, within 30 days following TMI. Certificates will be provided via email. 

 3-Day training at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Littleton near W Mineral Ave and S Santa Fe Dr.

Please forward this invitation to your mentors and teachers! 

Additional details below including a detailed map.

The TMI WORKSHOP uses both recommended Pre-Class reading and exercises for background material and 3-Day IN PERSON sessions to build and compete with a mini robot built by participant teams to prepare you for this year's competition.  The workshop is designed to be a shortened version of the 8-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. 

We expect to provide an email with instructions to obtain and load an easyC software license prior to the workshop.  

ONLINE Pre-Class Work:

We will provide a link to the pre-class instructions and material by 4 June.  The online website reading and viewing material includes the following topics:  

1. TMI Workshop Introduction - including BEST Robotics Competition and Safety
2. Engineering and Engineering Design Process Introduction
3. Software Introduction - including easyC programming
4. VEX Robotics Introduction
5. TMI Workshop Robot Competition Rules
6. BEST Engineering Notebook and Judging Introduction
7. BEST Critical Design Review Presentation (CDR) Introduction

 3-Day IN PERSON Sessions:

IN PERSON 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 review of mini-engineering notebook. Closing out the workshop are additional BEST season details and panel discussions with experienced BEST teachers, mentors, and students.  Click link for detailed DRAFT agenda ** - minor changes may occur.

We are planning to provide lunch and ask you to bring a beverage.  Attendees are asked to bring - if available - a windows laptop and basic tools (e.g., electric drill, screwdrivers, wrenches, small saw, scissors, clamps, and tin snips) AND your phone chargers.   

SAFETY  INSTRUCTIONS: We will follow the Health and Safety protocols in place at the time of the workshop.  We will provide additional instructions as needed.