How to keep children focused
Q&A 1:
Rookie Coach: I have a team of 9 children who love to chatter, and after 2 minutes without
instruction, they kind of get off track. I have some ideas for activities to keep them focused,
but the team needs to start cracking down on the Challenge. Any suggestions?
Veteran Coach: Each meeting, have a practice tournament and have the children run the
robot on the table and give their Project presentation. It is a powerful way to have them realize
how much work is left to do. This year I started doing this from the second meeting. I gave
them 5 minutes to prepare, 2½ minutes at the table, and 5 minutes for the Project. At first, the
team objected, but quickly got to work to better their performance for the next meeting.
