FLL JUDGE TIMER

Introduction

FIRST LEGO League Challenge (abbreviated FLLc) is a global STEM competition for elementary and middle school students (ages 9–14). A large portion of their ranked score is a judged interaction. This process is standardized using a rubric, which is filled out by a group ("pod") of Judges and overseen by a Judge Advisor ("JA"). Each team is seen one at a time, and depending on the size of the event you may need multiple "pods" or each pod to see multiple teams, often both. Because of this it can be difficult for a single JA to service everyone.

The Problem

Once a pod door is closed, it is paramount that teams are not interrupted except for emergencies. Therefore, it is beneficial to the JA if there is some way to determine the status of each pod.

For judges, it is difficult to keep track how much time is remaining and when to stop the student's presentation to start asking questions.

Animated GIF of a timer, the timer is in the shape of ring and a series of nodes. The timer starts at 30 minutes and starts to run down. As the timer progress the ring fills up and the nodes are colored. Each node indicates a different stage of FLL judging (welcome, Innovation Project, etc.). Below the timer are three buttons.

MY Solution

I created a stylized 30-minute timer (team interaction time), proceeded by a 10-minute timer (judge rubric time). Both timers can be paused, or the JA can be summon as needed. The first timer is broken into 6 colored sections, aligned with the time allotted for each style of team interaction (prestation or Q&A, Innovation Project or Robot). The status and expiry time of each pod is stored individually on a remote server, which can be aggregated for the JA to monitor.

Image of four colored boxes. Each box has a label (pod 1, pod 2, etc.) and a time remaining. Each box is a different color (green, blue, red, yellow) indicating the status of the room.

Green = All good
Blue = Timer paused
Red = Summon JA
Yellow = Summon Team

⏯️ = Play/Pause timer

🧙 = Summon the JA

🤖 = Summon next team

How to use

The tool can be accessed at https://fll.bcastle.net/, for backup purposes a secondary timer or clock should still be used.

Judges (or their Judging Room Assistant) select their event then enter their pod number, pressing "go"
- Users may need to prevent their device from sleeping in device settings
JAs select their event then press "Mission Control"

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