Digital or Handwritten Notebooks for VRC Teams

[AlainaHaws]

With the summer coming to a close, a lot of teams are going to be starting back up with the school year. And with a new season, it means it’s time for a new notebook!

Personally I am a fan of the digital notebook. It allows multiple members of the team to work on it at once (with the Google Drive version) and you dont have to worry about losing the notebook or someone forgetting it at home. It does take some time to get used to, but the templates really help with getting it all set up. This also is a great option if your students are mocking up their robot designs in some sort of computer software. They can easily take screenshots or screen recordings to share their designs within the notebook.

What format is your team using for notebooks this season? Why? I’d love to hear how your team chooses their notebook format and how they plan on keeping up with it this year.

[Lauren_Harter]

I saw this example of a digital notebook and wanted to share! I know for me (and for students/teams), examples are super helpful.

• VRC Digital Notebook example

Credit for this notebook found here.

[AlainaHaws]

This is a great example! Thanks for sharing.

I love how they color coded the table of contents so it’s easy to decipher what kind of content is on each page. The rational statement though is my favorite part. As an educator, I feel like we are always trying to get students to communicate their thought processes so we can see their progress and understanding. But it can be difficult for them to do that. Seeing the pros, cons, and thought that went into the team’s decision to go digital with the engineering notebook is just amazing.