EV3 Robotics›Level 4 · WRO Prep›Lesson 47
Level 4 · Lesson 47 · EV3-L04-4760 minutes · Block 6 of 6 · Mat: WRO 2026 — Robot Rockstars
Run against another team, with a judge scoring the run and the documentation together.
Two things are new today and both are how a real competition works. Somebody else is running beside you, and somebody is reading your journal and asking you about it.
The first way this goes wrong is rushing. Everything that was fine in an empty room — the setup ritual, the menu read-back, the pause before pressing start — now happens while a stranger appears to be doing it faster. Teams match that pace and skip a step. Your ritual takes as long as it takes.
Pair up with another team. Both of you run the full 2026 set — the concert stage at A, the tour trucks at B, the café at C, the park strip at D, the main plaza at E, from HOME and back.
Each team judges the other. You score their run, read their journal and ask them the three questions; they do the same to you. Judging somebody else’s work is what teaches you to read your own.
If you have two mats, run at the same time. If you have one, alternate — but keep both teams at the table throughout, because being watched is the condition being rehearsed.
A judge asks the team, not the robot. All three should be answerable from the journal in under a minute each — and if they are not, that is the finding.
One — why is the robot built this way? Point at any component and ask which line of the scoring sheet it earns. That is lesson 42’s justification table, and it is the question teams most often cannot answer about a robot they built themselves.
Two — what does it do when something goes wrong? Lesson 45. A good answer names the three failures, says how each is detected, and says what the robot does instead of stopping. A weak answer is “it usually works”.
Three — how do you know it is reliable? Not “we tested it”. The answer is numbers: the ten out of ten from lesson 31, the two sealed rounds from lesson 46, the five-run tables. Reliability is a measurement, and by now you have measured it repeatedly.
Documentation is scored because it is evidence of thinking. A judge cannot see the six weeks of decisions behind a robot. The journal is the only record that those decisions were made deliberately rather than arrived at. That is why WRO scores it, and why lesson 41 told you to keep the planning page intact.
Agree one sheet both teams will use, so the judging is consistent.
The run — missions completed and points, round time, setup time from placement to hands off, and whether the robot finished at HOME.
The documentation — is there a mat analysis with costed missions, a robot design with reasons, a record of what was tuned and what the numbers were, and evidence of testing rather than claims of it.
The interview — the three questions, each marked as answered from the journal, answered from memory, or not answered.
Judge the journal before watching the run, so a good round does not flatter thin documentation. Real judging separates them for exactly that reason.
The program is what it is. Use this time on the two things that are actually being tested today.
Rehearse the setup ritual out loud, twice. Placement, chain power-up order, calibrate, module fitted per its card, menu entry selected, selection read back by a second person, start. Under pressure people skip the read-back, and it is the only check on the one mistake nothing else catches.
Rehearse the three answers out loud. Decide who speaks — one person, with the journal open, not three people at once. Find the page for each answer now, so nobody is leafing through a book while a judge waits.
“It is in the journal” is not an answer, and neither is reading a page aloud. A judge wants to hear a team explain a decision and then see the evidence for it. Practise the sentence, then the page.
Now judge properly. Be the judge you would want: fair, specific, and not generous about things that are actually missing.
Then swap and be judged. Do not defend or explain while being judged — write the questions down instead. The list of questions you could not answer is what you take away from today.
One round each, cold, with the other team watching. Full ritual, no rushing, no coaching once it starts. Score the run and time both the round and the setup.
Then a second round each, with two minutes and one change allowed — the fix window is back today, because a scrimmage is practice for a tournament and a tournament has one.
Compare your setup time against lesson 46’s. If it is shorter, check honestly whether that is because you have got better at it or because you skipped a step while somebody was watching.
Today’s entry, written the same day while it is accurate:
That list of unanswered questions is tomorrow’s work. Lesson 48 is the final tournament and the journal is submitted and scored. Every gap found today can still be filled — but only today, because tomorrow the journal is handed over as it stands.
This model drives, so its challenges are run on a mat. Mats differ between branches — check you are looking at the one in your room.
WRO 2026 RoboMission Elementary — Robot Rockstars · official WRO game mat, 2362 × 1143 mm
The challenges name these places rather than distances, so the same challenge works on any mat:
Switch mats above and every route below is redrawn on the mat you chose.
Work through the challenges in order — each is harder than the last. The mission comes after all three, and it is meant to make you plan before you build.
Agree one judging sheet both teams use — the run, the documentation, and the interview — and judge the journal BEFORE watching any run, so a good round cannot flatter thin documentation. Real judging separates them for exactly that reason.
Rehearse the setup ritual out loud twice, and the three answers out loud once, deciding who speaks — one person with the journal open, not three at once. Under pressure people skip the menu read-back, which is the only check on the one mistake nothing else catches. Your ritual takes as long as it takes, however fast the other team looks.
Judge the other team properly. Ask why the robot is built that way, what it does when something goes wrong, and how they KNOW it is reliable — then mark honestly whether each answer came from the journal, from memory, or not at all. Ask for a number; if the answer has no figure in it, note that. Then say one thing they do better than you.
Run one round each cold with the other team watching, then a second each with two minutes and one change. Write down every question you could not answer — that list is lesson 48's homework and it is the last chance to act on it, because tomorrow the journal is handed over as it stands. Documentation is scored because it is evidence of thinking: a judge cannot see six weeks of decisions, and the journal is the only record they were made deliberately.