Showcase and reflection

What you’ll do

The last session celebrates the year. Teams show their robots to visitors, give each other feedback, and reflect on how far they’ve come.

Running a showcase

Each team sets up a stand: the robot, a one-page poster (problem, solution, how it works, test results) and, if possible, a short looping video.
Visitors (other classes, families) walk round. Each team member takes turns explaining and demonstrating.
Visitors leave a star and a wish on sticky notes.
Finish with short speeches: one thing each team is proud of.

Peer assessment

Use the rubric from Presenting your robot. Fair feedback is specific (“your turn-into-gap fix was clever”) and kind (“the wiring could be tidier so it’s easier to debug”), never just “good” or “bad”.

Reflection

Answer honestly, on your own:

What can I do now that I couldn’t do in September?
Which lesson or project was hardest, and how did I get through it?
What’s one bug I’m proud of fixing?
How did I help my team, and what would I do differently?
What do I want to learn next?

What next?

Keep going with the Competition prep path.
Try an Advanced topic: ROS 2, computer vision or AI on small boards.
Enter a competition (see Robotics competitions).
Mentor next year’s beginners.

Example: a one-page showcase poster

SortBot: sorting recycling by colour Problem: mixed recycling at school isn’t sorted. Solution: a colour sensor reads each block; a servo flips a gate left (blue) or right (red). How it works: sense (colour) → think (if blue… else…) → act (servo). Results: 9/10 correct after we added a light shield round the sensor (it was 5/10 before). Next: add a third colour and a counter display.

Example: a reflection answer

“In September I didn’t know what a resistor did. Now I can calculate one with Ohm’s law and wire a whole robot. The hardest part was the line follower losing the line; we fixed it by changing one thing at a time and keeping a log. Next I want to learn PID properly.”