FIRST for IB Students

[Nawaid Ladak]

for those of you who don't know what IB is

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Baccalaureate


I know there are a couple of IB students in FIRST. i was wondering from them if they were able to use FIRST for their CAS hours

for those of you who don't know what CAS is, please click below

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creativity%2C_Action%2C_Service

The fact that thses students need 150 hours in creativity(building the robot...), Action (Events...) and Service (School presentations etc...) This smart group of students would be able to complete all three with one dedicated year of FRIST. Quite a few teams have this program in the schools taht fall under the teams umbrella. so my questions to these teams are as follows.

do you guys think this idea would be a good sell to the IB students?

Has your team been able to tap into the IB students and recruit for your respective team?

compare the amount of time put in by these students compared to other students.

Im asking these questions because there is a school here in south Orlando. that might be able to start a team, but the only issue would the the majority of the students would be in IB as well as doing FIRST. This quick survey would give me some testimonials and allow me to collect information so i can sell this idea to the school.

anyone agree, disagree, have any opinions?

Thank You everyone in advance for responding

[basicxman]

i just got accepted for prep-ib next year and I will be using my FTC team for my 150 CAS hours, i am also starting an FRC team at the high school im going to

[JayLopez191]

Our team is comprised of more than 50% IB students. CAS hours are not one of the main selling points because we recruit 9th and 10th graders in large auditorium demonstrations (IB starts officially in 11th) and IB only makes up about 15% of the student body. We do not recruit more IB students but through word of mouth in the IB program many more IB students seem to join.

Many IB students on our team use FIRST for Creativity or Action(It was my creativity.) I don't know if anyone has used it for both. We have team service requirements and a no "double dipping" policy so it is harder to use team service events for service hours. However, if someone goes beyond their team service requirements they can use the rest for hours.

For the at least the last 5 or 6 years, the drives team and many of the most committed students have been IB students. However, we have had a number of very committed Non-IB students as well.

As for IB and FIRST together, engineers are just about the best people you can get to help with IB Physics or Calculus, and the students around you in a similar situation help with the sometimes rigorous workload. Also, tell them about $9 million in scholarships!

[Greg Peshek]

Ok, so from what I can gather you're referring to Cypress Creek are you not? I'm not sure, because my sense of direction in Orlando is terrible, the only other IB here is University High, and I don't know exactly where that is.

665 based out of Oak Ridge acts as a hub for students from 3 different school, Oak Ridge, Edgewater (where I go), and Cypress Creek. We have 4 people on the team from Cypress right now, one is the Valedictorian (and our president) and all are in IB. They have used FIRST for all of the hours they have needed before.

As far as starting a team, they have started a FTC team there, but have found it more advantageous to come to Oak Ridge as it already has the setup and funding. Currently we funnel funding from EHS and CCHS to ORHS and just work out of there, it's much simpler.

If you are truly looking at trying to start one at Cypress, PM TheFuhr because he has been the driving force at Cypress.

And going back to your questions, they put in a lot of time at both FIRST and IB. From what I understand, the amount of homework they have is unprecedented and they end up putting in some serious hours trying to get both done.

Hope this helps..

-Greg P.

[Alex Golec]

Team 469 is an all-IB student team, and yes, robotics is an excellent source of CAS hours (Last year's senior class averaged 400 hours from robotics). Many students work 20+ hours a week for the robotics team and keep up with the IB program without a problem. Last year, all 4 seniors on the team all traveled to Atlanta just one week before the May examinations without issue. In my experience, IB program was just another in-school activity that didn't interfere with FIRST.

The key for the students is organization and time-management - I know it sound cliche, but yes, it is the answer. Another key skill is communication between the students and the team. 469 adjusted deadlines and schedules around the senior's and junior's assessment deadlines during the build season so that no time period would be too stressful, but only if they knew about those deadlines beforehand.

But as always, you NEED parent, sponsor, and/or teacher involvement to grow this idea into a successful team. Hope to see this team next year!

-Alex

[BigJ]

Over half of team 1675 comes from a school that offers IB. I know they get some hours working with the team but I am not sure what (I went to the other school on the team, the tech school with all the machines :p).

[draconar]

I've been in FIRST for three years and IB for two, and I think the majority of my CAS hours have come from robotics-related activities. I've used fundraisers for Service, fabrication for Action, and programming/website design for Creativity. It is a struggle during build season between the robot and homework (January/February are when a lot of the major assignments are due), but aside from some late nights/early mornings, I've gotten it all done. IB is all about balancing time, so it ties in with FIRST pretty well. Getting CAS hours without using FIRST would be tough, but combining the two works out well. Realistically, I see a lot more benefit from FIRST than spending a couple hours cleaning the school. Looking at the previous posts, I would stress working around IB deadlines. If you force too many things on them, robotics will be first to go.

To specifically address your questions:
If you stress the right points, you shouldn't have any problem getting IB students on the team. Make allowances for their amount of work, but generally IB students are highly dedicated, and that's what you want on a team. Plus you learn applied math and physics which is helpful for classes.

We have a handful of IBers on the team that are active, and I tend to pull in a bunch more for grants, artistic design, competitions (Spirit Award = action hours!), etc. We're considering starting an IB Engineering class next year, which I'm sure will draw more people in.

While the IB students do sometimes have to leave workdays early in order to get work done, in general they are also among the most dedicated members of the team. They are often leaders and are willing to take responsibility, and they are familiar with deadlines.

Best of luck getting this team off the ground. I've found that FIRST really goes well with IB both to distract from the academics and as a source of CAS. If you or anybody involved would like detailed information, please contact me.