1.1.5 - Build Season

Objective: Finish FIRST Module 6, then say what January is for, what a new member does, and what stop build means.

Do this first

Module 6 is the required training for this page. It is the official prep course. Open it, finish it, then come back. A Dashboard login stores the credit. A school Google account does not.

Open Module 6: Preparing for Build Season

When you return, tell a mentor the module is finished. Be ready to say what you will do on the first shop night if nobody hands you a job.

What January is

Build season starts at kickoff, the first Saturday in January, when school is back from winter break. FIRST reveals the game that morning. Every team reads the same manual at the same time.

Team 2064 then has about six weeks to turn that manual into a robot that can play. The deadline is stop-build day. After that date the competition robot is frozen for the event it is entered in. Practice and pit fixes still happen. A new mechanism after stop build usually does not.

Fall meetings and the things like XRP are how you learn the shop and tools and systems. Build season is when the game is real and the clock is short.

The six weeks

When	The shop	A new member
Kickoff Saturday	Reveal, manual, scoring argument	Opinions are welcome. Invented rules are not.
Week 1	Musts, wants, prototypes on the table, community designs reviewed	The robot will most certainly not exist yet.
Weeks 2–3	Prove mechanisms in wood and/or PLA; lock the frame dimensions	A failed prototype is the work, not a delay. Keep testing!
Weeks 3–4	Cut, assemble, and wire	The shop gets loud. Bumpers are being made only after the perimeter is fabricated.
Weeks 5–6	One robot ready, match cycles tested, drivers trained, then freeze build	A new idea that is not on the robot yet cannot be added until there is a proven concept of it working.

What to expect

More hours. After-school nights and some weekends. School still comes first. Tell a lead early if you cannot make a night.
A subteam, not a free roam. You will be placed. Ask to try another area after you have been useful on the first.
No job is normal for a day, not for a week. Ask a lead. First jobs that do not need a tool sign-off: cleanup, part sorting, bumper help, writing down what a prototype test broke.
Week 2 is supposed to look unfinished. Do not judge the season by the first prototype.
Being in the room does not clear you on the mill, the CNC, or enabling the robot.