Revamped Mentor Manual!

FIRST Tech Challenge is so excited about the release of the revamped and updated FTC Mentor Manual! In addition to necessary updates, we added a ton of useful information on teambuilding, fundraising, conflict management, team longevity, writing a business plan, press release, the Engineering Notebook, and loads more. Here’s a quick tour of what you will find in the new manual.

Hyperlinks - they are everywhere, connecting you to documents, web pages, videos, and other places in the Mentor Manual for quick navigation.

Pictures and examples – this is a real visual guide, similar to an interactive textbook, including call-out boxes with tips!

Loads of information - It’s a big file, but it can be broken up into five sections:
  •  Getting Started- Includes: Season Timeline, the Mentor Role, Registering the Team, Funding the Team, and FTC in the Classroom.
  • Teambuilding and Team Management - Includes: Building the Team, Team Meetings, Team Roles, Teambuilding, and The Engineering Notebook.
  • Building Robots - Includes: Safety, Developing Strategy, Designing a Robot, Building, Wiring, Programming, and Iteration.
  • Preparing for Competition - Includes: Preparing the Team, Tournament Structure, Tournament Registration, What to Expect at Events, Inspections, Queuing and Rounds, Game Play, Scoring, Alliance Strategy and Scouting, and Judging and Award.
  • Team Outreach and Longevity - Includes: Outreach Activities for Teams, Celebration and Recognition, and Maintaining Team Longevity and Sustainability.

Appendices – All the Appendices are available in the FTC Team Toolkit as

downloadable/editable Word docs as applicable, or printable PDFs. Includes: Season Timeline, 10 Steps to Being an Effective Facilitator, Sample Team Roster, Sample Team Budget, Team Roles, Team Judging Self-Assessment, Sample Resume, Engineering Notebook Samples, Types of Events, Award Categories, Sample Business Plan, Robot Order of operations, Case Studies for Training, Sample Press Release, Build a Booth, FIRSTand FTC Materials, and Resources and Support.

As you can see, we have packed the new FTC Mentor Manual full of excellent information and amazing resources (most of which we collected from teams, mentors, volunteers, and Affiliate Partners). Read it all at once, a little at a time, or merely skim it now and save it as a reference for later, but no matter what, we hope this manual is as useful to you as we intended it to be.


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