This article is helpful if:

• You are a parent who wants to develop your child's talent in STEM/Robotics by joining national competitions.

• You are parent with children whose age gaps do not allow them to take part in 1 single event together.

• You are a teacher/trainer in a school with an odd-numbered unofficial robotics team (met in school but participating outside of school)

 

In recent years, Duck Learning has observed an increasing trend of private teams signing up for robotics competitions. If you are in a school, that's pretty simple since your teachers will help you with that.

What if you are alone? How do you find a team member for your robotics team?

Don't worry, you're not alone in looking for team members for your child/student to join the FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL) or National Robotics Competition. There are different ways to go about doing this.

Read more: List of Robotics Competitions in 2024 - Singapore – Duck Learning

 

Here are 5 ways you can search for team members for your child:

1. Indicate interest in forming a competition team via form

2. Join robotics classes/ competition training courses.

3. Request for help in your child's school.

4. Ask your friends and family members if their children are interested.

5. Asking on Parenting Forums or Social Media Groups

1) Indicate interest in forming a competition team via this form

 

 

Form Link: https://cutt.ly/fll-form-team

The form above was created by Duck Learning to help solo members find teams to join the prestigious competition.

Note: We will only use the details submitted for team formation purposes.

For a start, you can start off by leaving your name and details via the form mentioned above.

Once there are enough students in the same age range to form teams, the competition coordinator will contact you and share the contact details (with permission from all parties).

Alternatively, you can drop us an email at learn@ducklearning.com if you have any other concerns.

 

2) Join robotics classes/ competition training courses

 

 

If your child is participating for experience rather than winning award...

An organic way to form teams would be to join non-competition type robotics courses with the goal to make new friends that would like to join a competition as well.

Once a team is decided between parents and children, parents can decide to coach their own children or sign up for training sessions together at a learning centre.

Check out STEAM Engine's workshops and courses here.

 

If your child is talented, highly competitive and aims to win an award...

However, if your child is looking for competent team members, you may have to search for learning centres that will be able to pair your child up with someone of the same ability level.

This could mean that you may have to call up a few FLL-participating learning centres to enquire about their students' abilities.

You can start by enquiring Duck Learning's STEAM Engine (Learning Centre) via Whatsapp at 9822 5921 (Hani).

Duck Learning is the official organiser of FIRST® LEGO® League in Singapore. STEAM Engine is a learning centre brand under Duck Learning.

 

3) Request for help in your child's school

 

 

More often than not, your child may not be the only student in his school who may be interested in joining a prestigious robotics competition.

While more schools are adding Robotics as a co-curricular activity (CCA), there are still quite a number of schools in Singapore who do not have them yet.

However, you can always approach the CCA Head of Department (HOD) in your child's school to ask if the school can help look for potential team members for your child.

 

Some examples of how schools can help:

• Make a morning announcement during assembly looking for participants in the competition.
• Send out an email/text blast to parents that may be interested in developing their children's STEAM talent as well.
• Enquire CCA groups that may have overlapped interest with robotics e.g. AVA Club, Maths and Science society, Tinker Club etc.

(This list is non-exhaustive)

 

4) Ask your friends and family members if their children are interested

 

With the ever-changing COVID19 Safety Measures, it is best to seek a team member that your family trusts and won't mind meeting frequently.

You can see the competition training as a form of bonding session between cousins, family friends etc.

Alternatively, you can find teammates that you already have experience working with. This way, your competition performance is likely to be better than a newly put together team.

 

5) Asking on Parenting Forums or Social Media Groups

 

If you are still casting your net to find the perfect team members, you can try forums such as kiasuparents and even Facebook Parenting Groups related to enrichment courses, portfolios or competitions.

If in the end, you are still having trouble looking for members nearer to the registration deadline, we recommend skipping the upcoming competition and join robotic courses for fun and improvement first.

At Duck Learning, we believe that robotics and STEAM education is meant for everyone, not just students who are good at it in school.

Every child should have the hands-on experience with quality STEAM Education to help them apply, contextualise and understand the STEM subjects learnt in school.

Joining a competition is one valuable experience that can impact your child for years in the future but it is not the only way.

 

We wish you all the best in your search for team members!

If you need any help in looking for team members, don't hesitate to reach out to us at steamengine@ducklearning.com or via Whatsapp at 9822 5921 (Hani).

 Last updated: 18 March 2024