Technical Storytelling and Judging

Lesson

Judges read many portfolios and talk to many teams. The teams they understand best are the ones that tell a clear story. A good technical story is not about sounding impressive. It is about helping someone outside your team follow your thinking from a problem to a result.

The four-part technical story

1
Problem
What challenge did you face? Make it specific and measurable.
2
Approach
What options did you consider, what did you choose and why?
3
Result
What happened when you tested it? Show the evidence.
4
Next step
What will you improve next, and what do you expect to learn?

Here is a short example: Our intake often missed game elements that arrived at an angle. We compared three intake designs in a decision matrix and built a roller intake. Tests showed it still missed angled elements, so we added a second roller and a wider mouth, which reduced misses in our repeated trials. Next, we plan to test it with the robot driving at full speed.

The judging interview in general terms

At many events, teams meet a small group of judges for a short interview. Often the team gives a brief presentation and then answers questions about the robot, the engineering process and the team. The exact format, length and rules change between seasons and events, so check the current Competition Manual and any event information you receive.

Topic	Who usually speaks	What to prepare
Team overview and goals	Captain or any confident member	Who you are and what you aimed for this season
Drivetrain and mechanisms	Build sub-team members	One design decision and one iteration story
Programming	Programming sub-team members	Autonomous strategy, sensors, one key code idea
Testing and results	Whoever ran the tests	One data table or chart and what changed
Outreach and teamwork	Members who led those activities	What you did and what you learned

Make sure every member speaks about something they actually worked on.
Practise with a timer so you know how long your presentation really takes.
Ask a mentor or another team to play judge and ask unexpected questions.
Bring the robot or a mechanism you can demonstrate safely if the event allows it.
If you do not know an answer, say so honestly and explain how you would find out.

Judging preparation and awards

FTC events usually include judged awards that recognise different strengths, such as engineering process, robot design, programming, outreach and teamwork. The names, criteria and requirements of these awards change between seasons. Read the award descriptions in the current Competition Manual and make sure your portfolio shows evidence for the areas you want judges to notice.

Map each technical story onto a portfolio section so judges can find the evidence behind what you say in the interview.

Does every section tell at least one problem, approach, result, next step story?
Does every image have a caption?
Do tables and charts have titles and units?
Is the portfolio within the current page limits and format rules?
Have at least two people who did not write a section proofread it?

Key terms

Technical storytelling: Explaining engineering work as a clear sequence of problem, approach, result and next step.
Judging interview: A conversation between a team and judges, usually with a short presentation and questions about the team's work.
Judged award: An award decided by judges based on criteria in the current Competition Manual rather than by match scores.
Proofreading: Carefully checking a document for errors and unclear parts, ideally by someone who did not write it.

Practical exercise

Write and rehearse your technical stories

1Each sub-team writes one technical story with the four parts: problem, approach, result, next step.
2Read the award descriptions and portfolio rules in the current Competition Manual and note which stories support which areas.
3Fill in a who-speaks-about-what table so every member has a topic.
4Rehearse the full presentation twice with a timer, with a mentor or teammate asking questions.
5Write down three questions that were hard to answer and prepare better answers with evidence.

Deliverable: A set of written technical stories, a completed interview plan table and a list of practice questions with improved answers.

Knowledge check

Answer every question, then check your answers.