FIRST and grades
 

Earlier this year, at the Western Canada regional, I was doing the interview portion of my Chairman's Award presentation and I was asked an interesting question. The judges asked if our students membership on the team had improved their grades. I thought this was odd since from my experience being dedicated to the team had a negative or neutral effect on grades for our students. As much as we may wish that the stuff you do in FRC was used in school, this seems to be rarely the case. Additionally, build season should get you behind in school because much of your time is occupied and there is little time to do homework and study.

I'm wondering how FRC has impacted you and your students grades?

Re: FIRST and grades
 

My grades definitely went down since joining the team. Not by much and not to the point where my grades are a problem, but they did go down.

Re: FIRST and grades
 

Our students have to keep their grades up to be able to travel - Nothing below a C in academics, nothing below a B in their technical trade. And it's not our team rule, that's a school rule. All of our kids rise to the occasion - a number of our students are National Honor Society kids and all of them are taking honors and AP classes, and make honor roll.

One of the most rewarding things is to see a student bust their butt to get their grades up to be able to travel after missing out on travel a previous year due to grades.

We do tell the kids that homework and school comes first (they are students first after all) and to come to us if they're having an issue and we'll help them the best we can. Most of the kids will come to the room early (our meetings don't start until 6) and work on homework and stuff during build season so they don't have to do it when they get home.

Re: FIRST and grades
 

We do not directly track grades from before the team to after the team. Although we do check the schools list for ineligible students and will get after them and work with them to help improve their grades. This is rarely the case though, most of our students do not every hit that list becaus they have other school sports that they are apart of.

As part of our meetings we encourage students to bring their homework or things they are stuggling with for help. Students help students and the coach is a science teach who can help with those subjects. We even encourage this for build season even though they do sometimes take advantage that it counts for build hours.

Re: FIRST and grades
 

In high school my grades stayed the same during build season, if they didn't I wasn't allowed to go till they returned to where they were before.

In college as a mentor my first year I had issues with balancing: mentoring, schooling, working, and social life. My best advice to college mentors, or anyone in High School looking to be one after: schedule your class selections so during the Winter/Spring semester to be easy non-degree oriented classes. (This year I took Cultures of The Amazon, Unknown Knowledge, Nutrition, and Biology. I am a Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Major.)

Re: FIRST and grades
 

My grades went up during build, but dropped during competition season. Traveling is what kills grades because you're at least missing 2 days of school, maybe 3 if you're traveling far. It's hard, especially in high school in the middle of the year, to come back and be caught up after missing at least two days of instruction.

Re: FIRST and grades
 

I doubt FRC had a positive effect on my grades in high-school; likely the opposite, as the time requirement for build season certainly cut into the time I spent doing schoolwork.

That said, I don't regret it one bit. I likely got more out of FRC than I got out of the rest of high school combined.

Re: FIRST and grades
 

Yeah, as an FRC mentor in college your spring semester needs to be filled with less difficult courses. Of course there is going to come a point where you can't do that anymore....

While I was in high school my grades did go down a little during build season but not by much that it impacted my GPA...etc.

Re: FIRST and grades
 

We are a garage team and have no school sponsoring us. However, academics are a huge push for the team.

I have been told that the teens’ grades have taken some small hits. The most common issue that I have heard is attendance. We have had to have teachers “mislabel” FRC regionals and Champs so that it does not directly impact whether or not the students pass essential classes.

Re: FIRST and grades
 

When I was a student, my grades were always higher in the spring then in the fall. FIRST gave me extra motivation to work efficiently.

Re: FIRST and grades
 

This is a great question.
I'd like to offer a couple followup questions:

How do teams ensure that students grades stay up and/or improve?

What policies do teams have for student grades?

What are suggestions to help students who have lower grades, but clearly *need* this FIRST experience in their lives?

Re: FIRST and grades
 

We require a minimum of a C in every class. If any student gets bellow a C they are not allowed to travel with the team.

We as mentors are not allowed to see any of the students grade but our teacher sponsors check them on a regular basis.

The travel rule becomes a good stick, if a student falls below a C they must work out a written plan with their teacher in the class to bring their grade up. This has been a successful and positive policy for the students.

Also all students must get permission from all their teachers to miss days in school.

Re: FIRST and grades
 

I've mentored several teams that monitor students' grades, and one that actively tutored students. This is a great way to pull in timid potential mentors: So many great potential mentors beg off of FRC because they believe themselves to be under-qualified, but mentoring in a subject they are confident in is a very gentle trojan horse. This has a very positive effect on students' grades... I'm not as convinced that monitoring has a positive effect.

Re: FIRST and grades
 

1. Offer a study hall before meetings for homework to be done if mentors or teachers are able to be there. We don't meet until 6pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays so students are able to go home and do homework or stay at school.

2. We follow our school's policy for travel (see above) - C or better in academic subjects, B or better in technical trade.

3. See number 1 - study hall or make an expectation that students seek extra help before going to robotics. Or have team members offer to tutor those who are struggling.

We do this too.

Re: FIRST and grades
 

If anything, I would say that FIRST has a negative effect on grades. I know that my son's grades went down when he was involved (graduated in 2009). However, I have found that grades are an artificial measure of progress at best. I would say the experience gained by the kids, in math, science and engineering, as well as working in a team environment, problem solving, etc. far outweigh the temporary negative impact on grades.