girls ?

[maDGag]

ok .... obviously females are rather rare in our midst

[excluding PR and CHEERLEADERS and CLERICAL]

how many girls are there around the metal shop on weekends when the actual work gets done ?

[Cory]

surprisingly, last year, one to three girls were always present (out of 4 total). This year, we have lost those three (freshies in college:D) this year, we have a few girls from another school that seem to be pretty interested in robotics, and have shown up to all the meetings.

/me thinks there are too many threads about girls

Cory

[Stephanie]

i am *always* there. are you kidding? i *am* the robot ;)
naw, our team is actually majority female, and usually there are at least 6 girls in the room where the work is being done at a time. unfortunately, not all of them actually work :/

[Xenogyst]

Currently we have two girls on our team; hopefully it'll stay that way till the end of the season...

It's hard enough to get -guys- to join our team...

[tenfour]

Hey all...

All we have is one girl.... It really stinks b/c it gets tiring being in a room full of other smelly guys!!

Anyhow,
!!

[FotoPlasma]

Our single female member is the only student machinist.

She kicks $@#$@#$@#.

[SpaceOsc]

lol theres a huge shortage of girls in robotics admittingly across the board... but over here in 702 ville we have two Co captains and there both bright, smart, hard working girls doing there stuff and out shining the guys, and there are even other girls that have been working around the clock to get the bagel byte of 2003 up and running tho the guys have done most of the building with out them on the team I'm not sure wut would happen lol:p

and even our buddy team out here (Venice high) 861 has there team mostly of girls and there all learning and getting things done... if there was more girls in robotics then all the robots would be like WOW... :ahh:

and besides i don't wanna be stuck in a room for hours a day with just guys lol i think everyone can agree with me on that:D

[HolyMasamune]

Originally posted by Cory
surprisingly, last year, one to three girls were always present (out of 4 total). This year, we have lost those three (freshies in college:D) this year, we have a few girls from another school that seem to be pretty interested in robotics, and have shown up to all the meetings.

/me thinks there are too many threads about girls

Cory

Wow, people from other schools actually go to your meetings? That's weird...

[Katie Reynolds]

We have four females on our team. Not one of them just does PR/clerical/"cheerleading". One girl is the lead of our programming team. One girl (me!) is the lead of our electrical team. One girl devotes her life to drive, and the other does animations. And every girl knows how to use the shop (though you'll usually only find ChellyZee in there.) All four of us are also part of the Tesla Engineering Charter School (http://www.aasd.k12.wi.us/tesla), which rocks! At the start of the season, we had eight girls ... but a lot of them dropped for various reasons. :( Oh well.

- Katie

[Cory]

Originally posted by HolyMasamune
Wow, people from other schools actually go to your meetings? That's weird...

This is because the other school will not let them have their own team, or so I am told, so they joined ours


Cory

[Alexander McGee]

hey all, well, our team 68, truck town, has 21 members, 10 of which are girls. so, we decided to start a new team, 998, and call it Lady Thunder. Our girls compete in the after season at invitationals with our other robot (we build two each year). Its pretty cool.

[srjjs]

Originally posted by HolyMasamune
Wow, people from other schools actually go to your meetings? That's weird...
Dan, Alex, Denise, Der-Shing, and the Jeremys go to other schools and I've seen them around this year.

[Melissa Nute]

I believe we a bunch of girls...
our entire welding crew of 4 people is girls, you have me on the lathe, and the others doing other random jobs around the shop...

[Ian W.]

we have quite a few girls. most of them do the management stuff, but i'm trying to get them more involved in the building part. i think by the end of build they'll at least have tried some stuff. they all want to be drivers though, so that's a good thing (i think).

[Firewolf]

Originally posted by Cory


/me thinks there are too many threads about girls

Cory

me agree

yeah, i'm one of the original girls on my team(sr.), and I get put on PR b/c i know the in's and out's (haha, rite)
but that doesn't mean I don't try to do other stuff too
most of our girls work w/ stuff to some extent.... some of them
tend to giggle a bit more ...

"girls, it's all i want is girls" by b-boys i think is a ap. song for this thread... ok, maybe only that part of it (sorry it just came on the radio)

[Rich Kressly]

Cybersonics members are as follows for 2003
Male: 18
Female: 15
We have 5 student officers - 3 are female

Famale Role Breakdown:
1 - mechanical/scout
1 - electronics/head scout
1 - electronics/programming/scout
1 - Inventor Website Development/Manager
1 - PR/Strategy Coordinator
2 - Animation/scouts
1 - Animation/PR
2 - PR
1 - PR/Web Content/Scout
1 - PR/Fundraising
3 - PR/Fundraising/Scouts

-Why is the question asked to "exclude" those in PR?

[Koko Ed]

We have numerous girls on our team.
And being that I am not only a mentor but a chaperone
YOU
CAN'T
HAVE
ANY
OF
THEM!!!



Go back to your room! :rolleyes:

[HolyMasamune]

Originally posted by srjjs
Dan, Alex, Denise, Der-Shing, and the Jeremys go to other schools and I've seen them around this year.

He meant other schools as in other high school students interested in their robotics program, not previous visiting members from college. Plus, are you saying that Dan's a girl? =P

[Justin Stiltner]

team 388 has always had a majority of females,
ex our first year we had 4 guys, and around 20 girls!!!:yikes:
the next year, about 7 or 8 guys and 12 or so girls.
this year is ALMOST half and half, but more of the girls have shown up to work than the guys.
:yikes:

[virusmirusne]

Personally... while sheer numbers of girl look good to the affirmative action crowd... From a teenage boy standpoint- we need to do something to encourage the convergence of the robot geeks and the attractive members of the female subspecies. It may have been said by everyone once. But we should have cheerleaders. FIRST cheerleaders.

[Justin Stiltner]

we did..
almost every one of our girls was a cheer leader, basket ball player, track runner, or just plain beautiful.
hehe... we had em alll!!!!
tho its because of the way our team works,
its part of an extra cirricular program that normally only the "brainy" kids get into, and those are usually the ones you described

[Jeff_Rice]

Masamune:

It's not so weird. My brother and I are from Sweet Home High School, and we drive 45 miles to West Albany to go to meetings. Next year I will start a team in sweet home.

Virusmirusne:

I totally agree with you, however, though some girls are attractive it is best to get ones w/ attractive personalities. Both doesn't hurt, though. :D

[hacksaw692]

Team 692 is called the Fembots. I'm sure you can figure out how many of us are girls. :p

Our team doubled in size in comparison to last year. It's awesome to see so many girls interested in this program!

[virusmirusne]

A girl without a personality is like an aluminum box without a chiaphua.

[Cory]

Originally posted by virusmirusne
Personally... while sheer numbers of girl look good to the affirmative action crowd... From a teenage boy standpoint- we need to do something to encourage the convergence of the robot geeks and the attractive members of the female subspecies. It may have been said by everyone once. But we should have cheerleaders. FIRST cheerleaders.

It is nice to have girls on your team, but its not all about having some hot chick to stare at all the time. when you are around guys 24/7 during robotics, its nice to have girls in there to lets say even out the hormones. They are different than us, and fun to hang out with.

FIRST does not want to attract girls because they are hot, and because teenage guys like to stare at them. FIRST wants to attract girls, becuase typically, technology and engineering fields are filled by men. FIRST's goal is to get girls interested in science/technology/engineering who would not be exposed to these fields otherwise.

How do you think girls feel when they see that people want them on their teams simply because they are "hot"? I don't think that women are flattered by men who want them around, simpy because they are nice to look at. I would say that the vast majority of the girls involved in FIRST are not in it so they can recieve attention from us, but because they are interested in robotics, or want to learn about robotics.

To sum it all up:

It is very demeaning to only value girls because they are "hot" value them for who they are: people just like us who love robotics. There is a lot to be learned from each other.

Sorry ive been ranting for so long, but I feel this is important:cool:

Cory

[FotoPlasma]

Originally posted by Cory
[Cory's post]

Very well said. I always find it offensive when someone says that their team needs more attractive females. It's perfectly fine to be attracted to good looking people, but being chauvinistically disrespectful and misogynistic is definetly not cool.

I don't mean to attack virusmirusne, but it's just a general pet peeve I have...

[virusmirusne]

Guys... I was really joking... it was very much a sarcasm thing. I joked being fully aware of what are held as the "traditional" views toward women in engineering. The sarcasm thing has never gone over well on the internet... it's an age-old problem. Our head programmer is a girl... and she definitely knows her stuff. I'm not a bigoted woman hater or anything. There are plenty of girls more intelligent than me and in very advanced math classes and things. My sister is graduating this spring from Rollins with a bachelors in mathematics... I know smart girls are cool... I was just trying to lighten the mood.

[virusmirusne]

All of this evidenced by the post that followed my original post...

[Katie Reynolds]

Originally posted by Cory
...

How do you think girls feel when they see that people want them on their teams simply because they are "hot"? I don't think that women are flattered by men who want them around, simpy because they are nice to look at. I would say that the vast majority of the girls involved in FIRST are not in it so they can recieve attention from us, but because they are interested in robotics, or want to learn about robotics.

...

It is very demeaning to only value girls because they are "hot" value them for who they are: people just like us who love robotics. There is a lot to be learned from each other.

Cory
Cory, I love you! We've had problems with this in the past ... some guys on our team are always saying, "Man, I wish we had some hot girls on our team!" Or "Oh man, I wish she was on our team - we need some hot girls!" From my (and the rest of the girls on my team) standpoint ... it really hurts. Sure, the girls on my team might not be the most beautiful things that ever walked the planet ... but we've got brains. And kick*ss personalities! Doesn't that count for something? I don't mean to carry on about this, but I think this is something that affects a lot of girls involved in FIRST ... and it kind of sucks. :(

virusmirusne - I'm sure you were just trying to lighten the mood. I'm not trying to rip on you in any way, shape or form. :) But this does come up a lot with my team, and it really does hurt.

With that said, I'm gone.

- Katie

[Shelley_delphi chick]

On team #48 Delphi ELITE there are 51 students on our roster and i think there are 12 girls. Just because we are girls doesn't mean that we don't get dirty and surly doesn't mean that we can't run any machine in our wood or metal shop.I myself am a female SR on my team which I am in charge of the AV-photo team, ASFAB Team (Assembly and Fabrication), and I'm the machine shop specialist. You can always find me in the shop getting my hands dirty, but I'm not sure that all of the girls follow my lead. Our team is almost always male dominated in every aspect. I think girls need to get interested and personally I don't think it has anything to do with the guys that are involved, because I'm seriously been crushing over a very computer nerd geek from a Delaware team (he knows who he is), and I personally don't think I'm a dog by any means, so there you have it. What needs to be done is you guys need to go out into your school and let girls know what opportunities there are out there and make sure you bring them in and show them how things work. Everyone that is interested will learn if someone will take the time and help them. Engineering is a male dominate field, which doesn't really appeal to all girls just for that fact. I on the other hand have always gone against the grain, be it that I play pick up hockey (roller) with 20 some guys that are twice my size and about 5-14 years older then me. You have to make this program welcome and user friendly to girls. That doesn't mean parts wise, it means you guys need to dig your heads outta the gutter and help these girls!!

[virusmirusne]

Megga dittos to that last caller... with one additional comment... What you just said seems to be what FIRST is all about. Anyone, regardless of age, sex, or creed can find inspiration if they are exposed to something that inspires them. For one person it might be a good song, for someone else it might be some book they thought great and were able to relate to... But there are tons and tons of people who just love the idea of robot building. Anyone with a desire to be involved should be welcomed. Not everyone is going to be the head of ASFAB (I’ve never even been inside a machine shop)... but gifted in a particular area or not, anyone can be involved and learn. Excluding people from a team based on sex is ridiculous… and purposefully, strategically leaving out someone and not welcoming outsiders is the practice that makes up the backbone of hated and inefficient bureaucracy.

[virusmirusne]

The best person for the job should do the job... but sometimes the best person for the job needs to be encouraged to realize how they can blossom. I mean... encouragement can go a long, long way... who knows what geniuses lie within the walls of your school... just waiting to find a way to channel their energy...

[MattK]

Originally posted by Cory
surprisingly, last year, one to three girls were always present (out of 4 total). This year, we have lost those three (freshies in college:D) this year, we have a few girls from another school that seem to be pretty interested in robotics, and have shown up to all the meetings.

/me thinks there are too many threads about girls

Cory

NEVER put "too many" and "girls" together in a sentence. :D

[Jeff_Rice]

Looking at this discussion, I realize that I may have offended some people. If I did, I did not intend to. I tried to point out that girls aren't just looks but I probably should have been more specific.

I have been taught to respect girls, and I realize why FIRST wants girls in the program. Once again, I apologize for what I said.

[maDGag]

it's just that FIRST somehow doesnt appeal to girls in my school

i go to brooklyn technical highschool, one of 3 specialized science high school in nyc [stuy and bronx are the other 2]

and in a school of 5000 kids, only 2 girls joined robotics. a couple of other show up, but only cuz they got stuck in robotics class. :(

on weekends, there is only 1 maybe 2.

[maDGag]

-Why is the question asked to "exclude" those in PR? [/B]

i asked to exclude the PR, because it pertains to liberal arts more than engineering

[Scorpion515]

Our team has two girls. We have a small team as is (~15 people or less). Both of the girls are really active. One is a rookie, so is learning, and the other (me!) does anything from electric to website.

jill

[Adrienne E.]

I was a proud member of the X-Cats when the girls outnumbered the boys on the team last year. And yes they were involved! Our coach was a girl, our human player was a girl, I was one of the drivers, and all the others worked really hard on everything! Some in HR, but alot in designing and machining I know that this kind of thing is rare on FIRST teams, even on 229 where if you combine the college students and high schoolers I think we have 6 girls, which is why I love talking to younger girls and inspiring them to become involved in more technical things.

[Matt D]

There are no girls on the Cheesy Poofs. There is a reason for this though. We are sponsored by (and all the members except some of the adults attend(ed)) an all boys school. Bellarmine College Prep is the only all boys school in the area. We have tried to involve girls from other schools, but that never really worked too well.

Please don't attack us as discriminating against females. It just hasn't been feasable. Maybe when the administration decides to let girls in:D

[virusmirusne]

The darned administration muddles up everything.

[Trashed20]

we have no girls, but hopefully 128 will be our cheerleaders again........

[Amanda Aldridge]

Originally posted by Cory

To sum it all up:

It is very demeaning to only value girls because they are "hot" value them for who they are: people just like us who love robotics. There is a lot to be learned from each other.


Bravo!

On our team last year, girls and guys were as equal as they could get. This year, while i'm not sure of the exact numbers, I do know that more than half of our returning members are girls, and that out of 22-25 people (i live in a bubble...i'm still not quite sure how many people are on our team this year :confused: sorry) there are at least 10-12 girls. As for what girls do on the team, the answer is simple: everything. That doesn't mean that the boys do nothing, just that girls aren't limited to typically female roles, or told that they cannot do anything simply because they are girls.

Originally posted by maDGag

i asked to exclude the PR, because it pertains to liberal arts more than engineering

It pertains to FIRST. Men can be interested in Liberal Arts and Women can be engineers. That is the worst example of stereotyping I've seen in a long time.

Personally, I am heading up the Chairman's Report and Woodie Flowers Award, and I am also working on the website. No, I do not build. The reason is not that I am a girl, but that I have a pathological fear of power tools (don't ask!), and I can't hammer straight to save my life. My input to actually building the robot is limited to possibly filing the rough edges off of some aluminum, but that is a personal choice.

There are several girls on our team who help with the building, and our programming team is a girl and a guy. Elyse, one of our veteran girls, is our "floater", meaning that she works with whichever crew needs her. In one day, she can be seen in the shop working with the build crew on the chassis, then with the electrical team to wire that chassis, and then in the computer lab designing flyers for our annual spaghetti dinner.

Girls and guys on our team have always (as long as i have been on the team) been about equal. We have girls who build, and girls who don't, and we have guys who build and guys who don't. Everyone has their role, but those roles are not determined by stereotypes.

Okay, I've rambled long enough. I'd better stop before I get kicked off the boards for "boring everyone to tears."

Good luck everyone!

[ChewyMasterFlex]

I'm just wondering...are there actually women out there who like intellectual asian men? hello? anyone out there?

[srjjs]

Originally posted by ChewyMasterFlex
I'm just wondering...are there actually women out there who like intellectual asian men? hello? anyone out there?
Sorry to tell you, but it's only the ones that want help with their math homework. :rolleyes:
Although helping others with math is pretty fun...

[Ryan Meador]

My team has about a 5:1 male/female ratio. We come from at least 5 different schools :P And despite the fact I'm not asian, I fit the whole math homework comment perfectly :P

[Firewolf]

Originally posted by ChewyMasterFlex
I'm just wondering...are there actually women out there who like intellectual asian men? hello? anyone out there?

there is love for everyone:p

[Melissa Nute]

Originally posted by ChewyMasterFlex
I'm just wondering...are there actually women out there who like intellectual asian men? hello? anyone out there?
heh...
/me likes intellectual asian men....but I already have one of my own

[HolyMasamune]

Originally posted by ChewyMasterFlex
I'm just wondering...are there actually women out there who like intellectual asian men? hello? anyone out there?

There are, so good luck looking :P
...or you can help them with their math or bio hw, that's when they ALWAYS come up to you :)

[Elyse Holguin]

Originally posted by angel55
Bravo!


There are several girls on our team who help with the building, and our programming team is a girl and a guy. Elyse, one of our veteran girls, is our "floater", meaning that she works with whichever crew needs her. In one day, she can be seen in the shop working with the build crew on the chassis, then with the electrical team to wire that chassis, and then in the computer lab designing flyers for our annual spaghetti dinner.



Aww amanda, thanks for mentioning me!!! personally, i "float" around because when this is all done and through i want to be able to say i've done something in almost every part of our robotics team.
and

Originally posted by ChewyMasterFlex
I'm just wondering...are there actually women out there who like intellectual asian men? hello? anyone out there?

ohhh yeah buddy, this girl likes intellectual asian boys very much, and not for math homework!!!!

[Elyse Holguin]

oh, and right now the majority of our team is right here, and i'm looking at 7 boys and 9 girls. hehehehe, we are rocking this year buddy!! :yikes: :D

[Specialagentjim]

Originally posted by goosefrom71
oh, and right now the majority of our team is right here, and i'm looking at 7 boys and 9 girls. hehehehe, we are rocking this year buddy!! :yikes: :D

::Glares evily::....






Did I spell evily right...?

[HolyMasamune]

Wow, I find it rare to see schools with more girls than boys on the team (assuming that the school pop is around 50/50) in our area...guess there are more in other places.

and for your reference, it's evilly with two l's

[Courtneyteam330]

team 330 has 5 girls on the team and all of us do like tons of stuff. Personally I am on the Pneumatics team, Mechanical team (drive sub-team but I sit in on most of the other sub-team discussions), Systems engineering team, and am webmaster!!!! the other girls do at least as much stuff as I do which is very cool! GO TEAM 330 GIRLS (Sarah, Mary, Calli, Willow and ME!!!!)

[Specialagentjim]

Originally posted by HolyMasamune


and for your reference, it's evilly with two l's

Ahhh, thank ya

[stefi]

we are 5 girls, including the teacher Simone.

they are:

Stefi ( me )
Marta
Tahina
Luiza

and

Simone

we are great and we rules!

lol!


:rolleyes: :p

[stefi]

nha

[Elyse Holguin]

Originally posted by goosefrom71
oh, and right now the majority of our team is right here, and i'm looking at 7 boys and 9 girls. hehehehe, we are rocking this year buddy!! :yikes: :D


ok, so the guys outnumber us at 12 or 13 boys to 10 girls, but we're still close.

[Adam Y.]

Ewwwww girls. It's quite literally like a soap opera with some of our girl teamates (not all).

[Ryan Foley]

we have 4 girl members of the team.
out of about 16, so they make up about 1/4th of our team.

[x-catSean]

Team 191 is almost 2/3 girls!

[Specialagentjim]

Originally posted by x-catSean
Team 191 is almost 2/3 girls!

Yeah yeah yeah, we've all seen the x-cats...

[MTWFLIP]

Just wanted to say that out of 20 team members - 12 are girls and most of them are very active. Those who do not want to build make up our PR base. As a female team leader, I think in order to get more female students on the team you need to have female adults!

Michelle Ritter
The Apes of Wrath

"Half this game is ninety percent mental."
Yogi Berra

(So what percentage is that?)

[mgreenley]

Just as an objective male, I'd like to point out that there are school robotics teams, and there are all girls schools, therefore there are all girls robotics teams-such as the St. Joes team.

[Lauren Hafford]

one of the only reasons why a lot of our girls don't have thier hands on the lathe or the programming is because we need people to do inventory, PR, fundraising, etc, and when we signed up for these jobs almost NO GUYS volunteered for them, so the girls stepped in and did those jobs (ROCK ON to jessa, erin, brittany, kim, and all the others). I'm sure that they would be more than happy to take over machining or whatever, but they were nice enough to do the jobs that needed to be done.

Y'all rock!
lauren

[Mimi Brown]

Every year, the majority of kids on our team have been girls... we are a public school, so no one can really explain this phenomenon, except for the fact that we are just so darn cool ;)
Unfortunately/tragically we graduated a ton of kids last year, and this year, for the first time ever, boys outnumber us!! But, there are still 5 chicks on the team and we are all getting our hands dirty with the boys. if anyone ever said boys were better at robotics/science/whatever they can be considered legally insane :D

And 862--we will def. be your cheerleaders again this year :yikes:

[SeanTheMad]

we only have one female out in the shop working in metal shavings and grease on our team. the rest are in PR/business/webpage/non-building factions of the team, all by choice rather then default.

we have a couple female adult advisors/alumni, but following the patern of the students, are also not out in the shop.

our team by far consists of males then females

[KennethToronto]

we don't have a shop nor are any of our *core* robotics members female

*shrug*...plenty of other (and BETTER!) places to meet girls

[Jeff_Rice]

Umm... KennethToronto, FIRST doesn't try to attract girls for the purpose of letting guys meet them. I'm trying to be nice here. Please show a little respect for the girls in FIRST.

[HolyMasamune]

i know there are schools out there with girls leading the building and stuff, but is it just me or do most teams have girls working on the pr/fundraising stuff while the guys do most of the building.

[Shelley_delphi chick]

I think that I am the only girl on my team right now that I have seen in the metal shop this year. There are girls on my team that know how to use all of the equipment and everything, but are leaders of the promotions team and web-site and things like that. It all depends on what you are interested in. I have always found the challenge in stepping into a male dominated area and taking charge. Make sure that my male counter parts are in check and that things are getting done and getting done right!! So, to all of you females out there, don't let these guys sit in here and say that all females are good for is PR work....BLAH!! I challenge every FIRST female to step into the build area and ask what needs done and if you don't know how ask someone to teach you!!

[Firewolf]

Originally posted by HolyMasamune
i know there are schools out there with girls leading the building and stuff, but is it just me or do most teams have girls working on the pr/fundraising stuff while the guys do most of the building.

If that is the case or not on some teams, it doesn't matter.
The point of FIRST is to get a wide range of kids together and have them work as a TEAM.
Each company has different parts, building, presenting, leading.. Etc.
If what you say is the situation on your team, then if it wasn't for the girls, you wouldn't have the money to participate, or the rep. to be known.

[Gadget470]

With 470 most of the girls work on PR/FR/etc. but that is by choice. They all learn the tools we use, and the right way to use them. (Contrary to popular belief, not everything is a hammer). The trend seems to be that once they know the tools and how to make them work well, they want to use them. Some of the girls work on build and electronics, others work in PR.

None of the PR people are limited to just PR, just as none of the build people are not limited to build.

[Hermione692]

Okay, girls do a lot more than PR stuff! My team is all girls, and we accoplish everything ourselves:) I think your generalizing way too much, we go to an all girls school (team 692), and we get our hands dirty. We do the designing, mechanics, electrical, pneumonics, programming, website, animation, and we're darn proud of it. Our team has even double every year, and this is our third year...can't wait til regionals :)
Herm

[FatHead547]

WELL we have mainly one girl that really works hands on with the bot..HOWEVER all us others will help out wherever there is help that is needed. I mainly work on the sprit things and do whatever needs to be done....i will pretty much do whatever...i can't really work hands on with the robot because that's not really my thing and i don't really do well with working with those things....but we do have others besides that one that helps when things need to be done.....but yet we pretty much work together to get things done....BUT we don't have any cheerleaders on our team...;)

[Timinator]

We have 2 girls on manufacturing and one in design. The PR stuff goes on at a different school so I can't comment there. Still, its mostly guys building the robot...

And the teacher that started the team is a girl, but she's the only one.

[Evildoughgrl334]

Ok Geroge person who started this thread, let me give you a hint, how long was tech an all boys school, so we've had girls in the building for like maybe 20 years, yeah the school is like 5,000 but look at the majors, TLA (techonolgy and liberal arts) is like all girls while Electrical Engineering has 5 girls in the senior class and we have more than one girl, I've been doing this 3 years, you have kelly for 2 years, Rosette i always there, Ms. Sabastian. So hush

[maDGag]

Originally posted by Meli W.
heh...
/me likes intellectual asian men....but I already have one of my own

please none of this ...

take it to www.whimit.com

[maDGag]

look all im saying is im gratefull for the females

a whole weekend of dirty shweaty guys, powertools, machine oil, and pizza is somehow mollified by the [female] presense.

[Amy Lynn]

Originally posted by maDGag
how many girls are there around the metal shop on weekends when the actual work gets done ?

Well i'm going to speak on behalf of the girls from my team and say, all two of us high school girls are fairly active in our team, and we are the first to jump to the work... no offence to the high school guys on our team... Anyone else from 229 wanna back us girls up??:D

[HolyMasamune]

Originally posted by Hermione692
Okay, girls do a lot more than PR stuff! My team is all girls, and we accoplish everything ourselves:) I think your generalizing way too much, we go to an all girls school (team 692), and we get our hands dirty. We do the designing, mechanics, electrical, pneumonics, programming, website, animation, and we're darn proud of it. Our team has even double every year, and this is our third year...can't wait til regionals :)
Herm

It wasn't a generalization, but I was just wondering what other teams' structure is like. A lot of girls on my team work on the building too, and some are crucial builders, so I have nothing against it. I also feel that it is great for FIRST to try to mix the two sexes and prove that some girls can do A LOT more work in the shop than guys =P

[Redhead Jokes]

Originally posted by HolyMasamune
I was just wondering what other teams' structure is like. A lot of girls on my team work on the building too, and some are crucial builders, so I have nothing against it. I also feel that it is great for FIRST to try to mix the two sexes and prove that some girls can do A LOT more work in the shop than guys =P

We've had female captains 3 years in a row, Angela worked on the robot at machine shop last year, co-drove at all competitions and is this year's captain for Redondo High. Mira Costa claims no girls at their school would be interested. We have 8 girls on the team, all from Redondo cuz SURPRISE, when they're recruited by a friend, they find they like it. There are 21 boys on the team, Mira Costa has 10 of them. A couple of years ago there were double the Mira Costa members, 2 redondo boys and @ 2 females from Mira Costa.

Angela still runs into new boys on the block who THINK they can beat her at working on the field or the robot. NOT!!!

14yo Marygrace is our TIG welder.

Senior Becky's father is the robotics' engineer, and she's going for engineering in college.

I can tell there are freshman girls who are going to be kicking butt.

[JonathanE]

Originally posted by HolyMasamune
Wow, people from other schools actually go to your meetings? That's weird...

This isn't weird! Check CA Robotics out - Team 619 has approximately 30 members from over 10 different schools: We aren't sponsored by a school, and have meetings in donated space located in downtown Charlottesville.

As far as I have seen, many (most?) of the teams out there are entirely from one school. Our method of running the organization works well, and allows us to pull in needed members from ALL the area schools, not just one that is sponsoring us.

Are there any other teams that run this way?

Jonathan

jonaturtle@aol.com
CA Robotics team 619
http://www.carobotics.org
Webmaster, Lead Programmer
Student Lead Animator
Student Lead Control / Electronics

[Redhead Jokes]

Originally posted by JonathanE
This isn't weird! Check CA Robotics out - Team 619 has approximately 30 members from over 10 different schools: As far as I have seen, many (most?) of the teams out there are entirely from one school. Our method of running the organization works well, and allows us to pull in needed members from ALL the area schools, not just one that is sponsoring us.

Are there any other teams that run this way?



We are 2 rival schools - Redondo High and Mira Costa High (Manhattan Beach) CA. Redondo has the auto shop.

This is the first year that we're really reaching out. Peninsula High next door city Palos Verdes couldn't get the school behind them, so we've invited two interested students to join our team. We also have 3 8th graders and one 5th grader - a computer whiz.

Last year VP talked of opening up our team to the continuation school, but I don't think anyone let them know. They'd be welcome.

[Shelley_delphi chick]

I know some teams that come from a number of schools and join together to form a FIRST Robotics Team. My team however is just from our school. We have somewhere around 57 students on the team roster, a FLL team in the JR. High and two more starting up next year. So, exactly how many teams have more then one school making them up, how do they share school space, and does anyone mind the travel factor?!?

[SuperJake]

Originally posted by Shelley_delphi chick
I know some teams that come from a number of schools and join together to form a FIRST Robotics Team. My team however is just from our school. We have somewhere around 57 students on the team roster, a FLL team in the JR. High and two more starting up next year. So, exactly how many teams have more then one school making them up, how do they share school space, and does anyone mind the travel factor?!?

We have something like 14 area high schools working together on our team. Everyone converges at a DuPont site in Wilmington, DE to work. There really isn't enough interest at any one HS to start a team, so we all get together. One of our students is home schooled and he drives 2hrs to the build site. He chose to be on the web team, though, so he can do a lot of work from home. I travel 30min to the build site almost every day and don't mind it. It is really cool when you go to the build site and have to show your badge to get in the gate past the guard shack. Definitely adds the coolness factor over working in a school shop. That, and we can leave all of our big stuff out... like the ramp and robot parts.

[LBK Rules]

Our team is mostly a home-school team. We do have one or two PS people, though.

Correct me if I am wrong, Sachiel7, but at nearly all of the machine shop meetings there has been one girl at each one. I think we have five or six on the team.

As far as I can tell, only one is interested in that type of work.

This is strait from memory, so don't think this is all verified.

[HolyMasamune]

Originally posted by Redhead Jokes
We are 2 rival schools - Redondo High and Mira Costa High (Manhattan Beach) CA. Redondo has the auto shop.

This is the first year that we're really reaching out. Peninsula High next door city Palos Verdes couldn't get the school behind them, so we've invited two interested students to join our team. We also have 3 8th graders and one 5th grader - a computer whiz.

Last year VP talked of opening up our team to the continuation school, but I don't think anyone let them know. They'd be welcome.

See? the guy on FIRST was right...it is able to break barriers between rivals and let them work together :P

[Redhead Jokes]

Originally posted by HolyMasamune
See? the guy on FIRST was right...it is able to break barriers between rivals and let them work together :P

When Senator Bowen visited in response to seeing a press release, school superintendents showed up. I told them I wanted to build a small robot to race the football across the field at our next rival football game. Manhattan Beach superintendent said he'd chase after it. Redondo superintendent goodnaturedly passed on saying anything, but later asked to be on our regular team email distribution list.

http://www.bcrobotics.org/20022003/images/pressr1.jpg

BTW, 14yo Marygrace who took welding jr college welding class and is doing our TIG welding on month's rental donated TIG is now teaching other students to TIG. 18yo Angela did great her first time. The boys take a little longer to learn :p .

[chellyzee93]

I don't know what the boys/mentors would do without us. Sometimes I feel like a mom. Kt makes sure that all of the management is taken care of, she's great at fixing things, and rocks your socks off in electrical.

I work with all of the groups so that I know what is going on, because of this i'm good at utilizing every member on our team because I always have something for people to do. I work on that while walking in and out of the shop. Sure the drawings get a bit dirty, but hey we've got stuff to do. It's my job to make sure that the robot gets manufactured, kt has to make it work :p

I would have to say that the girls are a very important part of our team.

[Cory]

Originally posted by Redhead Jokes
BTW, 14yo Marygrace who took welding jr college welding class and is doing our TIG welding on month's rental donated TIG is now teaching other students to TIG. 18yo Angela did great her first time. The boys take a little longer to learn :p .

That is very very cool. Thats absolutely amazing that a 14 year old can weld. Not only can she weld, but TIG too!!. That just goes to show you that preconceived misconceptions about girls and age are totally off base.

Cory

[Marc P.]

We have a few underclassman girls that are better on the milling machine than most of the guys on our team. They also chop, drill, measure, assemble, and do virtually everything else in the shop at or above the level of the guys.

[JVN]

Originally posted by Amy Lynn
Well i'm going to speak on behalf of the girls from my team and say, all two of us high school girls are fairly active in our team, and we are the first to jump to the work... no offence to the high school guys on our team... Anyone else from 229 wanna back us girls up??:D

You two are some of the most enthusiastic, and hard working students I've seen on our team. I wish we had 10 more like you!

It's not quanitity, it's quality :D

[cammie825]

yeah, we have girls...
Although, we really don't have a clue most of the time. For the most part, I stick to my computer over in the corner, and at times, help out with some electrical work. And sometimes, they do try to make us into "administrative assistants". I guess I can't blame them, I am a bit mechanically illiterate. (stereotypical girl... haha)

As for the cheerleader comment, I resent that. In the end, I WILL be a cheerleader, but, it doesn't matter. Our teams need the support, and it could be worse!

okay, thought I would defend that!!

[Tyler Olds]

Originally posted by Katie Reynolds
We have four females on our team. Not one of them just does PR/clerical/"cheerleading". One girl is the lead of our programming team. One girl (me!) is the lead of our electrical team. One girl devotes her life to drive, and the other does animations. And every girl knows how to use the shop (though you'll usually only find ChellyZee in there.) All four of us are also part of the Tesla Engineering Charter School (http://www.aasd.k12.wi.us/tesla), which rocks! At the start of the season, we had eight girls ... but a lot of them dropped for various reasons. :( Oh well.

- Katie

/me Looks back into his credits list........... we have a girl on animations?

[Brian48216]

Originally posted by Katie Reynolds
Cory, I love you! We've had problems with this in the past ... some guys on our team are always saying, "Man, I wish we had some hot girls on our team!" Or "Oh man, I wish she was on our team - we need some hot girls!" From my (and the rest of the girls on my team) standpoint ... it really hurts. Sure, the girls on my team might not be the most beautiful things that ever walked the planet ... but we've got brains. And kick*ss personalities! Doesn't that count for something? I don't mean to carry on about this, but I think this is something that affects a lot of girls involved in FIRST ... and it kind of sucks. :(

virusmirusne - I'm sure you were just trying to lighten the mood. I'm not trying to rip on you in any way, shape or form. :) But this does come up a lot with my team, and it really does hurt.

With that said, I'm gone.

- Katie




As a guy. I think that just some people aren't....very good with their comments. TO be honest, I wish we had a few more girls on the team, especially in direct construction of the robot. But it just so happens that the girls on our team are rather nice and pretty.
*I won't say hot for fear of backlash*

[Katie Reynolds]

Originally posted by Butcher93
/me Looks back into his credits list........... we have a girl on animations? We did. Yeah ... she kind of stopped coming. Now we're back down to three. :rolleyes:

- Katie

[Tyler Olds]

Originally posted by chellyzee93
I don't know what the boys/mentors would do without us. Sometimes I feel like a mom. Kt makes sure that all of the management is taken care of, she's great at fixing things, and rocks your socks off in electrical.

I work with all of the groups so that I know what is going on, because of this i'm good at utilizing every member on our team because I always have something for people to do. I work on that while walking in and out of the shop. Sure the drawings get a bit dirty, but hey we've got stuff to do. It's my job to make sure that the robot gets manufactured, kt has to make it work :p

I would have to say that the girls are a very important part of our team.

Yes very important, just as important as anybody else on the team, but they are NOT the entire team.

[Koko Ed]

Originally posted by Specialagentjim
Yeah yeah yeah, we've all seen the x-cats... :confused:

[JVN]

Originally posted by Koko Ed
:confused:

Ed,
In some circles the X-Cats have a reputation for being a team made up largely of girls. Most teams who compete against them realize this. In a competition dominated by desperate guys, you can see how this thing would get around...

I remember last year in Cleveland I was looking for one of my drivers, and heard he was "at the pool with xcats in bikinis."

It's not necessarily a bad thing is it? ;)

[Koko Ed]

Originally posted by JVN
Ed,
In some circles the X-Cats have a reputation for being a team made up largely of girls. Most teams who compete against them realize this. In a competition dominated by desperate guys, you can see how this thing would get around...

I remember last year in Cleveland I was looking for one of my drivers, and heard he was "at the pool with xcats in bikinis."

It's not necessarily a bad thing is it? ;)

It is if you're a chaperone.:rolleyes: :D

[unixfreak]

We have a total of 3 STUDENT girls. One is a college student, she works. The other 2 are PR, and dont do much fabrication if any. We have 3 female leaders also, but they do mostly "behind the scenes" work like fundraising and such. Our actual teachers are male.

[FRANK(WGH)]

well most might say that you don't see very many girls around the shop or power equipment but truth is there are many girls that do alot of work on our team for example 2 of our team members that are both girls have done aot of machine work for our team and the wheel hubs look real nice.

Thanks for all the hard work!!
:]

[Biggs717]

Last year as some of you may already know, our team consisted of 14 girls and 8 boys...needless to say there are always girls doing things! this year we have cut that number down to only five due to all the seniors who graduated last year were girls...but the girls do have a big roll too!

[Katy]

I am fairly sure we have always had a girl captain and this is the first year there are more guys one core team than girls (this is our 4th year). We have six elected leadership positions four of which are girls. (This is our first year with this much structure to things to we are still working on how it all works.) I for one am one of the four and learning to weld steel...can do it but not well enough to be of real use yet (I will be learning Al soon hopefully). I do a little electronics a lot of design, did the crate with some help, and then just using the tools to cut the Al or whatever along the line to fit into the latest theoretically brilliant but realistically disastrous project. (I’m kidding, really we aren’t too awful about staying on earth). Most of us (both guys and girls) do a little of everything with the exception of programming and sometimes electronics as far as building goes (those two have their own little groups). We don't have a real machine room (save a little area with two drill presses a chop saw an old band saw a grinder and a few hand drills) but everybody can do most of those (some hamsters too). You could say we are the opposite of most teams, the guys do more of the specialty things such as organizing day to day things, keeping inventory, web page, programming (mostly) and electronics (mostly). Chairman’s is new…so it is just kinda mine for the moment. Regional stuff is another girl (also new…before it just magically happened with parents doing it) and fundraising is split between one guy and one girl (that’s new too, we lived off UW and NASA grants before.) Day to day…who cares really? The guy girl stuff only really comes up for us when it is time to book hotel rooms for regionals.

Our team has been fairly much controlled by girls a great deal (...somehow it wasn't the guy's idea that we spray their hair hot pink and put zip ties in it...) We were the team in hot pink and black last year that ran around with the toy hamsters that sang (Seattle regional). Personally I haven't found the whole "girls don't do that" or the girls must simply be decoration mentality inside FIRST in team kids or mentors. It is more common from outside…although sometimes people assume I don’t know what I am talking about until I prove it but honestly I think that is just because I’m terrible at explaining the little world in my head.

[Tytus Gerrish]

We have 4 girls on our team , and one studet (amanda) who's work is only seconded by Jared (fellow Driver) and myself

[Pin Man]

confusing poll

[RLopez]

lol these guys talking about being surrounded by just guys and a few girls.. well im going to put it in my place... im a girl, and its like being surrounded by nothing but guys and a few girls that are on there that i talk to (like about 2 or 3 others) and i kinda feel tired of being around guys all the time.. but then the guys are hilarioud other than girls that just are quiet all the time... thats my 2 cents worth on this post...

[PsiMatt]

Hmm...let me see. Our webmistress (affectionately known as the dictatress), Assistant Animator, and Secretary, and four of our student engineers are girls. The other 5 members that normally show up are guys, with a few others that occasionally show up.

However, I (a guy, though by the way i've been called by come) am the main person on the team, as Master Programmer, Engineer, Instructor, Mentor, Animator, etc (i am a student). So...on the whole i've found girls to learn more quickly and be more adept than most males. They have more patience and actually listen when I'm trying to teach them.

In any case, I prefer girls to guys. :D

[cbudrecki]

We have three girls on the team this year. One does a lot of videography:), One's in the shop constantly :cool:, and the other floats aound alot. They really don't get treated any differently on the team, they're just "one of the guys."

[RLopez]

yeah, i take the photos and im in charge of communications and i do anything else that i am able to do around here...

[melissa]

There are only 4 girls on the team this year- 3 team members and one college freshman who is a mentor. The only problem is that the 3 team members are all new this year. We have learned a lot this year and maybe 2 of us (one is a senior) can do more actual work on the robot next year.

[dlopez]

our team is more than half girls...about 20 girls are on our team

[Erin Rapacki]

I'm a girl... and what am I doing the week after we ship?

I am helping my guy friends lathe parts for an all-terrain vehical at 11pm on a Friday night

talk about commitment... but hanging out with meat-heads is fun

ByE

erin

[IronSlayTallica]

I'm proud to say I'm the only girl on the team. Well, there's a 7th grader that's just a younger sister of a member and the daughter of a mentor but she does jack. I do more metal work than half the "guys" on the team.:)

[Jeff Waegelin]

Actually three of our best builders (and two of our captains) are girls. We have about 7 total, and three of them are heavily involved with the build team. They do more work than a lot of the guys on our team.

[mynameisalex]

Our high school is an all-girl school, so it's obviously not that tough for us. Our driver (me!), strategist, and human player are all girls, and we did 90% of the work on the robot: I did wiring, some of my friends did the wings, and we also had students doing suction, drive train, and animation. We were using drill presses and stuff- no milling because of liability issues :(

[utishpenguin]

Originally posted by mynameisalex
Our high school is an all-girl school, so it's obviously not that tough for us. Our driver (me!), strategist, and human player are all girls, and we did 90% of the work on the robot: I did wiring, some of my friends did the wings, and we also had students doing suction, drive train, and animation. We were using drill presses and stuff- no milling because of liability issues :(
go you!

our eletrical officer, director of operaitons, financial and pr officers are girls! yeah... but we still need more girls.

[Alex Salomonsky]

My team has 3 girls, one who is our historian and came in on just about every Saturady (some guys didn't even come) doing some work, not a lot, but some. One who worked with the spirit team, that was very small, and made some buttons, and one who came in on Saturday's also, and provided the team with a ton of Sobe which was great. The girls on our team didn't know much about building, but it was great that they were willing to give there time and try to learn. At comp., all they did was spirit, except for the one time we had 1 of them be the HP. She almost gave everyone a heart attack when she made it bak at maybe 14.999999 secs. (notice i haven't used names, just cuz i don't no if they want there names mentioned) Having girls is great, cuz im bored of listening guys talking about electronics and magic and other things i don't know. (Sports fanatic) At least these girls like punk music

[Quentinfool]

Our team has plenty of girls. But sometimes girls in general are like a steering wheel in your pants. They drive you nuts.:)

[utishpenguin]

Originally posted by Quentinfool
Our team has plenty of girls. But sometimes girls in general are like a steering wheel in your pants. They drive you nuts.:)

hahahahahahahhaha

im a neat freak, i clean up the area and throw away debris.... from i dont know what =P

[nicegirl]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hey all...

All we have is one girl.... It really stinks b/c it gets tiring being in a room full of other smelly guys!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

exactly...so how do you think that one girl feels in the room full of smelly guys!!!

but hey... i love these guys on my team...and im proud to represent girls of FIRST
so ummm...a lil question for the 696 guys....DONT YOU LOVE ME??? hehe come onnn im smart too ok??
and as for all you guys who think girls are inferior: i broke the half inch drill bit...BE AFRAID BE VERY AFRAID

my bf complains that I have 16 other bfs (David, Chris, Mo, Narbeh, hah Punar!, Harout...)

[sanddrag]

Originally posted by nicegirl
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hey all...

All we have is one girl.... It really stinks b/c it gets tiring being in a room full of other smelly guys!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

exactly...so how do you think that one girl feels in the room full of smelly guys!!!

but hey... i love these guys on my team...and im proud to represent girls of FIRST
so ummm...a lil question for the 696 guys....DONT YOU LOVE ME??? hehe come onnn im smart too ok??
and as for all you guys who think girls are inferior: i broke the half inch drill bit...BE AFRAID BE VERY AFRAID

my bf complains that I have 16 other bfs (David, Chris, Mo, Narbeh, hah Punar!, Harout...)

You broke the 1/2" drill bit!?!?:yikes: Awww, I can't blame ya - it was a Harbor Freight special.;) Anywhoo, we are very proud to have you represent the girls of FIRST, and YES WE LOVE YOU. And I'll have it be known you are darn smart. No decorating and marketing here folks; this chick is writing code, doing calculus, designing mechanisms, and cutting metal. She gives us guys a run for our money.:p

[Sophey Chan]

Well,t hat was definatley LONG reading material, but first thing in order, i think Cory is the bomb, it take guts for a guy to stand up to a girl, especially when a lot don't seem to think liek that, no offence. But yes..


As for my team, I am the only girl of 3 memebers. And well, i do everything on our team. I did Driving, Lift, HP, cleaning, awards, mechanic, pneumatics with Oakridge, Engineer, programmer, along with other stuff, but then again, my team isn't to surprised i know how to do everything, being in FFA, i kinda had a lot of expreiences, with fixing tractors and stuff. But girls appear to be a rarety at Central Fl, cause every team was surprised to see me working on our bot in the pit, with grease and WD40 all over me, not really caring what i looked liek ::shrug::

[utishpenguin]

Originally posted by Sophey Chan
Well,t hat was definatley LONG reading material, but first thing in order, i think Cory is the bomb, it take guts for a guy to stand up to a girl, especially when a lot don't seem to think liek that, no offence. But yes..


As for my team, I am the only girl of 3 memebers. And well, i do everything on our team. I did Driving, Lift, HP, cleaning, awards, mechanic, pneumatics with Oakridge, Engineer, programmer, along with other stuff, but then again, my team isn't to surprised i know how to do everything, being in FFA, i kinda had a lot of expreiences, with fixing tractors and stuff. But girls appear to be a rarety at Central Fl, cause every team was surprised to see me working on our bot in the pit, with grease and WD40 all over me, not really caring what i looked liek ::shrug::


nicenice
first girls are not proven to be imcompentent and weak and completly disprove most sterotypes

hahah

[randomperson]

Girls on our team... we have three

One doesn't do anything. Other one does lots of cheerleading and making people laugh and stuff...

But the other one has driven our robot the last two years and works on our web site, and also has helped wire the robot and contribute in other areas as well. This year I tried to teach her some programming so she can do that next year.. but not quite sure how much of it she has gotten yet. She is really one of the most productive members of our team besides myself and two other guys..

Oh, and as an added bonus.. shes really hot, and we went to a valentines day dance together.. :D

[Sophey Chan]

Originally posted by utishpenguin
nicenice
first girls are not proven to be imcompentent and weak and completly disprove most sterotypes

hahah


Haha, definatley, it surprised most of the judges when they would want to talk to me, and I was all greasy and not want to shake their hands, but they laughed and shook it anyways, I dunno. A lot of epopel talked to me, cause I was doing Mechanical work,t hen again, I did that long before first, I do it with the tractors in FFA, so I am use to it ^^;; So yea, HOPEFULLY next year, some of my other gal friends might join, which would be nice...to have someone of equal level of the team, by girl I mean, they prob won't do grease, but some work...I hope...

[batbotcrewfrosh]

Our team is all girls! We do everything... we're in the machine shop & the High Bay @ Robinson Lab @ OSU for about 23 hours a week, and spend more time @ school during study halls and such working on it. It's a lot of work, but it's tons of fun! I've never been on a co-ed team, so actually I can't really imagine boys being in the machine shop... Kinda weird, but to each her own...:D

[ComBBAT_Amy]

This is my 3rd year on the team and every year I, well lets just say the first year my intent was good, and if it hadnt been for the guys I wouldnt be where I was now being able to explain anything about the robot, to work on it, to just have the knowledge and capabilities I do now. And its just a place where I fit in, no drama or girly gossip..

[Melissa H.]

There are 4 girls on our team...we all do stuff...anything from electrical to paper work...usually, on a weekly basis during build, all of us are there...(just to keep everything under control ;))

[Kevin A]

Our team is mostly guys, but there are still about 10 girls there. Programmed by girl, control panel by girl, electronics board by girl...the list goes on. They seem to get their hands in on all projects, i mean who can turn them down?

Kevin Antaki
Team 481

IM Me: xpalendocious

[codeoftherobot]

I can understand how difficult it would be to be in a situation where you are the only girl surrounded by guys. Just do as much as possible. Even though I may not be a girl, I know what it means to be somewhat isolated. A word to all males with inferiority complexes, grow up. Women can do just as much as men can or more.

[utishpenguin]

my mom worries abotu me going to robotics... haha

i cant help it beign surrounded by guys *sniffle*

[IMDWalrus]

Originally posted by Biggs717
Last year as some of you may already know, our team consisted of 14 girls and 8 boys...needless to say there are always girls doing things! this year we have cut that number down to only five due to all the seniors who graduated last year were girls...but the girls do have a big roll too!

128 is the only team that I've seen this year where the two drivers are both girls. They did a great job at West Michigan, and hopefully they'll do well in Houston.

[AshleyD]

I think many people are too caught up in the "girls" issue. The number of girls on teams is growing. Traditions won't change instantly. The jobs that a lot of girls tend to do isn't always a bad thing either. It's a combination of team members' strengths that makes the team. Just because girls are more interested in "PR" stuff doesn't mean they dont gain an appreciation for science and technology, or don't know about the robot. Our chairmans award committe knows the robot well. And, we have guys that do PR stuff. Everyone interacts with the robot at some time or another but many focus on projects that can be complimented by their personal strenghts.

[AlbertW]

Originally posted by IMDWalrus
128 is the only team that I've seen this year where the two drivers are both girls. They did a great job at West Michigan, and hopefully they'll do well in Houston.

both drivers for the fembots were girls... :yikes:

[SharkBite]

If there aren't any girls on your team, or there are and they don't participate in the actual building of the robot, its your fault..... it may not be intentional but its your fault

everytime ive heard a team complain that the girls dont want to be a part of the robot building, ive gone to check it out and in every case so far theres been something a little more too it

[Elyse Holguin]

whoa! i'm on 71's pit crew. i worked on the bot, among LOTS of other things. i'm a floater, and i help out the rookies get into a place for them on the team. girls, stop being scared of a power tool already and pick it up! the only guy who's had a mishap with a power tool on the team was a guy. the only thing that matters is how you apply yourself. but in a lot of instances i see the guys are the ones that try to push the girls away. even i've been told to do weird jobs, like, testing strength... but you take it as it comes, laugh it off, and if someone feels like helping, yay!

[Amanda Morrison]

Originally posted by SharkBite
If there aren't any girls on your team, or there are and they don't participate in the actual building of the robot, its your fault..... it may not be intentional but its your fault

everytime ive heard a team complain that the girls dont want to be a part of the robot building, ive gone to check it out and in every case so far theres been something a little more too it

Not always true.

Our high school is one specifically for science, math, and humanities, so it's really incredible that there are so many kids interested in technical aspects. One girl on our team never really got interested in the robot, and I can't say I blame her. I'm an English major, and she plans on being an art major, but that doesn't mean that we are involved with the team any less than any other kid that is working on the actual robot. During my rookie year in FIRST, I hardly ever touched the robot, and I liked it that way. Even though I am a mentor now, I'm still an English major, and I have really no plans to go into any kind of engineering - but that doesn't mean that I can't encourage others to go into it. Even though now you'll find me working on the bot a bit more, I only do simple things, like tightening screws or holding things in place. I'm an english major. I might get a good kick from a lot of people on this forum for saying this, but I don't like engineering. I'm bad at it. I don't know what I'm doing and so I generally ignore the robot in its entirety when it comes to actually building it. But that's one of the great things about FIRST - there are things like the Chairmans' Award, the animation, the team spirit award, etc. to inspire those kids who maybe don't necessarily like engineering but still love FIRST. I was one of those kids, I still am one of those kids, and I hope to produce several more of those kids into the FIRST program through our team.

Our robot was built by dedicated students in a hole-in-the-wall teacher's lounge, and whether or not it was built by men or women is completely to their personal discretion. Hopefully all teams (and all girls) have the privlege of working the same way.

[SharkBite]

i dont think theres anything wrong with girls working on the non robot related project.... its just that if all of the girls are tending towards them, theres probably something to be fixed

most teams a few different kinds of kids on the team.... theres the dedicated core that enslave themselves during the building period..... theres the kids who know whats going on and help, but robotics isnt really thier priority.... and then theres the brand new kids and some other kids who participated previously but still didnt catch on.... the of kids that just kind of stand around and watch because they dont understand everything just yet..... the better the team (i mean in terms of being supportive) the faster these kids pick stuff up...... but if those kids are ignored too long, nobody teaches them how to use a tool or explains anything to them, they will either leave the team, or self motivate and find something else to do

most robotics teams are made up of mostly male mentors and students... when those mentors or veteren students are looking to reach out to one of the new students, they are less likely to pick a girl

all of the other committees within robotics are probably mostly run by females..... by this i mean PR, spirit, fundraising..... they are more likely to reach out to the girls

as long as people are happy its fine...... but sometimes girls on FIRST teams can get stuck in a rut where they want to build, and they want to do something else too, and its just easier to do that something else because thier friends are doing it or something

all im saying is that if you have a lot of girls on your team and none of them are working on the robot, some of them probably want to.... try to encourage them

[Redhead Jokes]

Originally posted by SharkBite
i dont think theres anything wrong with girls working on the non robot related project

SharkBite

One of our girls is a wonderful painter. *coy grin* Did you see the
top of our crate (http://www.bcrobotics.org/20022003/images/sharkattack.jpg)

[utishpenguin]

Originally posted by Redhead Jokes
One of our girls is a wonderful painter. *coy grin* Did you see the
top of our crate (http://www.bcrobotics.org/20022003/images/sharkattack.jpg)

its a lovely painting... i wish our crate is as good as that....

[Kaelia]

Originally posted by IMDWalrus
128 is the only team that I've seen this year where the two drivers are both girls. They did a great job at West Michigan, and hopefully they'll do well in Houston.

Hey, all of our drivers are girls =P We don't have anything else, like the frosh helpfully pointed out already...Yup, to my knowledge, we were one of three all-girls teams at nationals. If I'm wrong and there were more, please tell me!

[Redhead Jokes]

Originally posted by utishpenguin
its a lovely painting... i wish our crate is as good as that....

*grin*

not sure you saw

the rest of the crate (http://www.bcrobotics.org/2003/2003photos.htm)

[Melissa H.]

*gasps*
Cool crate!:)

[hacksaw692]

Originally posted by Kaelia
Yup, to my knowledge, we were one of three all-girls teams at nationals. If I'm wrong and there were more, please tell me!

If someone knows, could you name all of the all girls teams, please?

I know there were three in the Archimedes division: 692 (Fembots), 771 (S.W.A.T.), and 433 (erm... team name I'm not sure of). And now 677 (what division were you in?).

We got to be allied with 433 once. It was cool. An all girl alliance... hehehe. We kicked butt in that match!

So if there were others, speak up!

[Marygrace]

Wuts up. My name is Marygrace, i am from Beach Cities Robotics. I took a class at the local Community College. I took a welding class. I did all of the welding on our robot this year. We have had female presidents for the past three years. We have seven girls total. One of them do all of the painting, she painted murals on all sides of the crate, including the top. My sister who was this years president, helped out with about a third of the robot making. The women are rising and will soon take over. LOL, j/k.:D

[Tytus Gerrish]

Aperently u havent seen this.....
http://www.7leaflets.i8.com/photo.html

[ellenchisa]

We had 4 girls on the team and usually 2 of us were in the shop at a time...occasionally we got all 4 though.. =)

[Alexander McGee]

I am proud to say that my team has girls on our pit crew, and an equal number of boys and girls, 9 and 9.

Thats primarilly why we have Lady Thunder, cause it makes things more interisting...

Anyways, our girls do everything that the guys do. In fact, our best aluminum welder is a girl.

And, our girls were in charge of our arms this year. You know, the ones that were deemed illegal via update 20, GM 31????

Pretty imprressive girls!

[Meredith Rice]

Being from an all girls team (433 Firebirds, and yes we did kick butt in that match Fembots, 692) it is pretty obvious that out girls do all the work. So yes we must handle the building as well as the pr and artsy side of robotics. And we must accomplish this all with just about 10 members. We are very proud of our team and the relationship we have with our (male) engineers/mentors. We all overcome whatever fears or embarrassments we have around powertools pretty quickly.

I am still suprised at how many people we have apporach us, amazed at what we accomplish each year while being an all girls team. I am more impressed when I see a lone female hard at work in a pit full of guys. Coming from an all girls school makes it easy for us. All the power to you girls doing it on ur own!!

[Kel D]

It is rather surprising that so many people are amazed that we are an all-girls team. I'm not sure if they thought that girls aren't as capable as guys in building and operating a robot, or maybe they just liked our robot. Since we are all girls, we are all involved in the building of the robot, we really don't have a choice. It is quite a sight to see some of us with power tools.
I was a little intimidated my first year because of the predominantly male population, but most people do not treat us differently because we are all girls, so thats good.
Well, if anyone is ever at the same competition as us, feel free to come over and say hi:D.

[TomWx]

mmm, I'd debate that. While I do know girls on several teams who work their tuchus off, it's not exactly the same on our team. Except for two girls, all the girls on our team do next to nothing, except take up space and noise.

[Jeff Waegelin]

We have 8 girls on our team. 3 were heavily involved on the Build Team, and spent at least as much time working as I (or anyone else) did. 2 of them ended up being on the drive team, too. The rest of our girls are on other groups, and do varying amounts of work, but not to the same degree of involvement.

[J2Kraatz]

Jeff not a cool thing to say considering all of our wiring was done by one of our girl members. But true not a lot of the girls volunteered for the cutting of metal.

[Lisa Rodriguez]

my team has 5 girls from 3 various schools, rockville, esast hartford, and manchester are where the girls are from, our team also has members from RHAM and coventry, we also have rumors to kids from tolland wanting to come over.
our team is primarily from rockville and east hartford, about 30 of our 40 members from those two schools, and the other schools are sparse because the engineering programs are not as large as those in the other two schools
overall, our team will accept anyone who wants to join, we have previously had members from Loomis-Chaffee and Cheeny Tech who had enough interest to form their own teams at their schools
As for the girls, i am one of the 5 that actually get dirty in the shop, not that the others don't want to, they either aren't in the metal shop when we build [our facility is in EH, metal shop in my school in rockville] or dont like that part of the team
i also got onto the build team and pit crew because i wouldn't let the engineers leave me standing there, i kept asking questions and damanding answers and wanted to know how things worked, so they put me to work, it was definetly worth all the annoying, and now they really like me!!:D
With most of the team leaving next year [seniors this year] i've done my best to get underclassmen like myself involved with building, which most of the seniors did, although i have had little luck, i believe next year should work, however much difficult it will be. But girls tend to like being PR and things that keep their hands clean, i, on the other hand, like getting my hands dirty and help build the machine, so that's what i do
you can't force the girls onto the team
most girls won't even date people on robotics, let alone join the teams, in my opinion, we don't need those girls, those who want to be involved will be

[shyirishangel]

girls there are plenty or more can join!! I am in 11th grade joined in 9th i continue to love this program & ethusim about robots. I learn alot and do whatever i can to help. I do battery's and help out in the pits w/ the guys! This program has made me realize that my dreams in technology may come true! :D I had always liked computers and wanting to work w/ technology in ways. This program has made that possible. I have never been in a more exiting thing i have ever did! DEAN KAMEN is the best guy to make my dream in combing the two things i love to do into a big competition!! GIRLS BELIVE IN YOURSELF & U CAN DO ANYTHING U PUT UR MIND 2! ;)

[utishpenguin]

you know what... if your scho9ol doesn't have it already set up a all girls technology club. from there encourage them to go to the robotics team.... thats what we did

[Jessie-648]

our team has 3school's and about 20 student and their are 7 girls 2 of them are our captain and co-captain. one of the girls did controls.

[GregTheGreat]

Originally posted by Jessie-648
our team has 3school's and about 20 student and their are 7 girls 2 of them are our captain and co-captain. one of the girls did controls.

Those numbers are pretty close to our numbers. Most of the girls on our team do the behind the scenes work. They do things like the chairmans report, the awards, and the fund raising stuff. Our team probably wouldn't be able to even "stay a-float" with out their help. They are constantly working in the computer lab on several different projects. I thank all of them for the work they have done this year.

Good Luck to everyone at the invitationals.

[Stina236]

Yeah, well, our team has a bunch of just awesome girls, and though the majority are a part of the PR team.. i think that our team would be completely lost without them!!!
We have one girl who designed the whole autonomous mode by herself.. and i think that that is just jaw dropping fantastic..
.. not to mention that i am a girl myself, and i think that we had a great dynamic to the team.. but then again, perhaps i'm just a bit prejudiced.. haha

[Michelle 236]

wow "lindsay" i totally agree.
the girls on our team definately liven things up
(who else would do the tick dance into the hotel swimming pool fully clothed?)
but um i guess since i also am a girl i too may be a bit prejudice

[utishpenguin]

Originally posted by GreenEyes13
Yeah, well, our team has a bunch of just awesome girls, and though the majority are a part of the PR team.. i think that our team would be completely lost without them!!!
We have one girl who designed the whole autonomous mode by herself.. and i think that that is just jaw dropping fantastic..
.. not to mention that i am a girl myself, and i think that we had a great dynamic to the team.. but then again, perhaps i'm just a bit prejudiced.. haha

one step at a time. our team has a similar situation, if there are girls in the pr, they iwll probably tell her friend and who knows will get addicted to mechanical and electrical. this yr my team is focusing on letting the lil'uns do work rather than teh veterans doing almost all of it.

i think we are actually going to go from classroom to classroom giving fIRST talks and recruiting people.

[Carolyn Duncan]

I've ben drug out of the shop by other people because they were tired and had to lock up. My senior year of High School I, and the only other girl on the team, initiated the sleep over in the band room, our practice "arena", on the bridge from the 2001 game so that we could get a couple hours of sleep and get back to the robot in the most time efficient way possible. There were only 2 of us chics on that team and we were always there even when we were sick. Presently I am not on a team but I will be for build this year.

[ashley212]

Well.. this year our team had like 5 girls and most of the time there were at least 3 girls at the class working on the robot (or at least trying to.. its hard to work with the big machines when the guys dont let us!) hehe! Next year the team is gonna be composed of 5 girls and 2 guys (were losing like 15 guys! )0: sooo sad!) .. but regardlessw, hopefully girls will be more active.

*ash*

[sanddrag]

We have DOUBLED our female participation for next year! We had one this year and will be having two female members next year. If I had a part in the new member application and selection process the number would be much higher. But unforntunately, I do not. :(

[Patrick Duffy]

Our team sponsor (school end, our great robotics teacher Mr. Shelton) had us write ways to recruit more female members to the robotics team as part of our final (shame I'm leaving Dillard, I'm gonna miss it) I think that getting girls in the team is easier done if you have a good art department for your team (as in making banners, t-shirt design, ANYTHING like that). We had a few girls this past season, but only a couple that were really involved in a major way. If you count all of them, we had 5 or so I think. Either way, its good for the team.

[utishpenguin]

Originally posted by ashley212
Well.. this year our team had like 5 girls and most of the time there were at least 3 girls at the class working on the robot (or at least trying to.. its hard to work with the big machines when the guys dont let us!) hehe! Next year the team is gonna be composed of 5 girls and 2 guys (were losing like 15 guys! )0: sooo sad!) .. but regardlessw, hopefully girls will be more active.

*ash*

most girls on teh team are afraid of guys and they cant really get their hands on eth robot.... still dont know how to solve teh problem... give a speech on courtesy on the first meeting?

[Madison]

Originally posted by Patrick Duffy
I think that getting girls in the team is easier done if you have a good art department for your team (as in making banners, t-shirt design, ANYTHING like that). . . .We had a few girls this past season, but only a couple that were really involved in a major way. . . Either way, its good for the team.

Okay, I'd really love for you to explain what it is about the nature of being a girl or the nature of arts and crafts that makes them suited for one another? I'm very unclear about the connection, and I'm completely unable to understand the assertion that these activities are more likely to attract girls than other activities -- or girls moreso than boys. I'm sure some other folks would like an explanation as well.

Furthermore, how do you define "heavy involvement" in the inspiration process? Because they didn't make the banners you wanted, are they less involved? Because they stayed on the sidelines, watching rather than participating, are they less inspired? I'm curious to see what criteria you use to detemine's someone's worth to themselves and to your team. Really.

Finally, it's not really even about the team. It's about inspiring individuals, no matter how, why, or when. ...recruiting girls is good for your team? How, exactly? You seem to indicate that they have a bad record of contributing anything you've deemed worthwhile. They seem to be best suited and most likely to draw pictures and make banners and have spirit and do public relations; something which you don't seem to value, really. I mean, why else would you use those aspects of FIRST to recruit people who aren't "really involved?"

Is it to pad your numbers? Is it that so you can wear the number of girls on your team like a proud badge of equality and fairness? Please.

[Patrick Duffy]

Actaully I was speeking more from the numbers i saw in my high school years. My high school is a technology magnet, and we have a pretty big female population in the program, but most of them are enrolled mainly or only in graphic arts programs and tv production, very few take courses such as robotics, programming and electronics. I don't know why, but its just how it goes. Not to say the females don't bring anything to the team, actually its quite the contrary, they bring a lot to the teams. In our team, it just happened that we did not have many girls invovled in building like processes, most of them were involved with graphics and fundraising. These jobs are also important mind you, and if FIRST inspires someone to be an animator, or a CEO, does it make it any less important that if FIRST inspires someone to be an engineer?

Its good for the team, simply because its more fun that way, i mean, who wants to be on a team full of guys only? Society also seems to frown upon anything that doesn't involve females, so its also good from a political standpoint.

[Erin Rapacki]

When I joined FIRST my junior year of high school (2001), I was technologically inept, didn't know much about computers or tools, but I recieved decent grades in math and science so I wanted to know if engineering was for me.

When it came to the robot, I spent most of the '01 and '02 seasons overhearing conversations between the engineers and absorbing information, I did simple machining tasks on the band saw or drill press, and participated a little bit with strategy and concept design.

Needless to say, I learned a lot... but the team would have had the same great robot whether I was on the team or not. It didn't matter... but the point is, I was inspired (as you all can clearly say now).

By helping out with such things such as media, awards, community service, demos, banners... whatever; I felt like a more active member of the team, and that I was giving something back after all. I enjoyed doing such things... I knew I learned a lot about robots, but came to cruch time I let the people who knew what they were doing go attend to the problems... I was needed somewhere else and it felt good to be important somewhere.

My point? Every aspect of a team is useful, and don't confuse inspiration with activity. You can never tell what is going on the mind of somebody, so don't assume. Because of the "non-robot" things I did, I gained useful communication skills (ways to sell people on something, less timid, phone calls, ways to deal with ppl, ect... Skills that many engineers sometimes lack)

I am continually learning more about how to build the robot every build season, it's an ongoing journey. Basically... all that matters is that I've decided to improve myself technologically.

p.s. simultaneous post... oops

[Specialagentjim]

M. Krass:

I'm also a member of patrick's team. We at dillard have a large girl population, as he said, but statistically speaking, they are more apt for graphic design/art/spirt than at building the robot. When we say that someone dosen't contribute to the team, its not in the sense of "They didn't do this the way WE wanted it", its they didnt put any effort at all into just DOING it. Most girls on our team, simply don't feel like putting the effort they see people like myself and others putting in. That's not to say there aren't those that do! We had one team member, who's name was "happy". She was there till 1am with me every night I was there working. She was a great asset to the team, because she put in EFFORT. From a statiscal standpoint, and statiscal only, males on our team tend to put more effort into the team.

...and believe me, we encourage female participation any way we can. Any female interested in the team is greeted with much respect and given every chance. Many times, they're given more oppurtunity than the guys on the team. However, even with all this oppurtunity, only a handful take advantage of it. Its a mindset they often times dont wish to adopt. I'm NOT saying girls are not a good asset, they're just as good as guys. There is no difference in the ability to build a robot. It's just the mindset they acquire, and the Fort Lauderdale Dillard High School mindset of the average female, is not about building a robot....but I've got plans to change all that as the new 108 team leader. ;)

[Jeff_Rice]

I have been watching this thread on and off for a while now, and I have been thinking about this.

If you leave a 7 year old boy in a room full of barbie stuff alone, he will eventually grow bored, make sure no one is watching, and start playing with the barbies.

Different story if there are other people in the room with him. Reactions will vary greatly here, but it is very likely that he will not play with the barbies.

What if we stick the kid in a country where it is socially acceptable for boys to play with barbies? He will play with the barbies whether people are there or not.

Here is my point. Recruiting girls actively is only a temporary solution, but it looks good and everyone says, hey, we're fixing the problem, look at us. We've (almost) all bragged about the number of girls on our teams. And it is very important. But we need to have girls on teams become role models, showing that engineering is okay and even cool for girls as well as guys.

Well, sorry, but I felt the need to say that. Recruiting girls is only a temporary fix. The girls on FIRST teams must become visible. (Lego league is a good place to start, fresher minds). In doing so, we will ultimately fix the problem, rather than prolonging it.

BTW, this is as much about guys doing PR, artsy craftsy stuff and paperwork as it is about girls.

[Patrick Duffy]

Well, you need to start somewhere, and recruiting is where that starts. It will take a while to make an impact, but if you can get a growth per year, I think you're doing something right. Basically what I think my teacher was trying to do, was to recruit more girls on to the robotics team to basically like you said, show that its cool to like engineering and be a girl, and the more girls you have on your team, the easier it is to have a steady flow of girls signing up (speculation, but it makes sense to me). I actually project growth at Dillard for female involvment.

[ComBBAT_Amy]

I was the only girl on the team my freshman year, and we didnt really have a spirit team or anything of that sort so my only choice was design or build and I went straight in to build and wouldnt have it any other way..we have the cheerleaders and what not now, but my place is in the shop.

[Specialagentjim]

Originally posted by ComBBAT_Amy
I was the only girl on the team my freshman year, and we didnt really have a spirit team or anything of that sort so my only choice was design or build and I went straight in to build and wouldnt have it any other way..we have the cheerleaders and what not now, but my place is in the shop.

::GASP:: There was a time when 21 had no spirit team!??

[utishpenguin]

its sometimes hard to get some engineers to shout

[Matt Attallah]

?!?!

How does this post keep on getting resurrected?! I thought this fell off of the CD.com web space!!

:)

[Specialagentjim]

Well Matt, once in a while, a small group of us (known normally as "forum trolls") tend to on our daily wanderings through cheifdelphi. One of the more popular of these "forum troll" activies involves going back through our old subscribed forums. I do this occasionally to make sure I haven't missed something from an errant e-mail that never made it back to alert me of a new post. Now, you may be wondering "What's wrong with you specialagentjim?". Well, that my friend, is a question which no forum could ever possibly cover.

[Matt Attallah]

Originally posted by Specialagentjim
...Now, you may be wondering "What's wrong with you specialagentjim?". Well, that my friend, is a question which no forum could ever possibly cover.

You're in FIRST - 'nuff said! :D :)

[Patrick Duffy]

It's FAR worse than you think Matt......Far worse...

[Angela06]

We have plenty of girls.... now most of them are on the PR crew but we have a girl 3 girls in charge of the programming and website and drive (including myself)..... there were hardly any girls on last years team but this year the girls out number the boys by quite a bit..... in a few years i bet the girls will begin to out number the guys at competition....

[Beth Sweet]

hey matt, it's back again!!!

[Alaina]

We've never had a girl working in a metal shop...That's probably because we don't have one....But yeah...

I joined my team last year, and I was the first girl to ever join. This year we're hoping to get a bigger team in general, so I guess getting more girls on the team comes along with that. It'll be fun.

[SaxMan701]

Other than PR and such? Well, there's Weedie. That's about it. Alisha designed our new shipping crate...does that count? Yeah, that's it.

[PsiMatt]

Well, after a long drought of girls...we finally have many on team 1135. Our webmaster is a girl, as are some of the Animators and manipulator designers....and they're all moving up.

[c-squared_2006]

I'm like one of the three girls on the team. The boys don't understand us really well, but let's just keep it that way. :)