EV3 Newbie Building Tips/ First Lego League

New to EV3 bot building? Follow these tips: 

Tip 1: Organize all your pieces! I know...it's not exciting. But organizing and sorting totally sets you up for success. When you receive your EV3 bins, everything will be packaged in separate little bags. Empty all those little pieces and sort by color and size. Or else it will be pretty impossible to find what you need!!!

Organizing for Tankbot building session

Tip 2: Save paper and use a laptop or tablet to scroll through the instructions online. Seriously, there are tons of pages of instructions! Bonus: you'll save all the color ink in your printer :)

Tip 3: Bookmark these building instructions: EV3 Core Set Bots and EV3 Expansion Set Bots.

Tip 4: Double check you have the right pieces before each step. Many pieces have VERY MINOR differences. It's easy to select the wrong part and not even realize it. Of course, kids will realize if they make a mistake further down the road when things don't connect correctly! 

Double checking parts every step - super important!

Tip 5: Take breaks and don't worry if you don't finish a bot the same day you start. Building is fun, but also tedious. Be happy about your progress! Keep it fun and encourage breaks.

Stopping point after an hour of building

Tip 6: Create a checklist for builders. At every session, I give M (or our team) a checklist. On the checklist is setup, putting away unused pieces in organized compartments, general work space cleanup, and charging responsibilities. 

Get kids in the habit of setting up, cleaning up, and charging. You won't lose important pieces or have a dead bot. Don't do these things for them - they need to learn to take proper care of their bots!