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Virtual Team Forum
Hey,
Since I'm unable to actually attend a team forum this year, I thought I'd post some ideas I had. Hopefully someone will read them, and bring them up at one of the actual team forums. I guess this is my virtual Team Forum. 1. FIRST's new thing seems to be "College Teams." At every event I've attended this season, the MC emphasized college FIRST, and the need to start new college teams. As many college participants know, this is easier said than done! College FIRST mentoring requires a great amount of maturity and commitment. It is only fitting, that FIRST find some way to recognize the college students who work so hard, in the same way it recognizes "adult" mentors. Perhaps an award, possibly with a scholarship attached should be created to honor a college mentor from the competition. Like the woodie flowers award, only for college students. Many college students do great things for this competition, and the teams within it without actually being a part of a "college team" (like Purdue 461, WPI 190, Clarkson 229, NEU 125, etc). Some of these "loner" college students deserve recognition too. 2. There are a LOT of great mentors in this competition. Many of them sacrifice themselves year after year to help this program, and to benefit their students. I personally have met many people worthy of mention. FIRST publicly honors one of these mentors each year with the Woodie Flowers award. Why not more? What if there was a regional Woodie Flowers award? This would allow for more people to be honored, while making it easier to judge. The regionals winners could then go on to compete for the national title. Just 2 quick ideas that might merit some consideration. Thanks, John |
3. The Website competition rules need to be clarified & expanded. There are a lot of fuzzy areas that can be interpreted many different ways. Some situations:
a) What happens if Suzy Senior makes a nice website, and then graduates, without winning the website award her senior year. But, the team wins the website award the year after, without changing Suzy's design. (possibly not changing anything) Does that count, because technically Suzy Senior wasn't on the team that year, so it wasn't created by a high school student that year. b) What kind of pre-made open source / purchased software is allowed to be used? vBulletin, phpNuke, phpBB, vbPortal, etc. A team could install a pre-made system in 20 minutes which could look better than another team's website who spent hours more working on their site. c) Just curious as to how many teams voted for the website competition at each regional. Was there alot of participation, or was it very sparse? I suggest using the team population to narrow the sites down to top 5, and then having FIRST judges look at the final ones to make a final decision. It was also suggested in another thread to have Yahoo.com or Amazon.com executive/designers judge the websites. That's all I can think of right now. This award is needed, because there are many great student designed websites out there. It worked out well this year, but I think it really needs some updating in order to continue to work in the future & be fair to everybody. |
I agree with John that a College Mentor award would be an excellent addition, and it disserves to be in a category of it's own.
College students are a minority and a different kind of mentor... we may never be able to win Woodie Flowers right away because most of us will only have loyalties to our college team for the duration of our education. And many don't understand the difficulty of transitioning from High School Student to Mentor in less than a year. There are many additional challenges associated with being a college mentor that need to be recognized. For instance, the close age difference with the students present a few problems with discipline, there is a lot to learn in a short amount of time about running a team, a lot of sacrifices to be made to get to meetings, and we always have to go bug our college administrations to keep the team going. I know there's more... everybody has their own story. I might try to suggest this next week... ByE erin |
John: i to will try and bring it up for ya, and i will try and remeber the website stuff... but i still think that FIRST didnt follow their own rules anyway
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....perhaps it might be wiser to have any issues regarding the recognition of the participation of college students be addressed by someone who isn't a student themselves?
Otherwise, it just appears as we're clamoring for attention and recognition of all the good things we do. It's always better to sing the praises of someone else rather than you're own. I think this might be a circumstance where that's an applicable attitude. |
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Any "adult" enginerds willing to champion this cause? ;) :D John |
Re: Virtual Team Forum
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.... MORE SUGGESTIONS AND IDEAS! I know everyone is burnt out from their finals, senior trips and some are still O.D. from the Nationals... but grab another can DEW the THINK! :D |
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Back to the topic... I think that having an online type of forum where suggestions could be made would be very useful for people who arent a part of a tean and have ideas, as well as teams that cannot make it to the actual team forum in their region. Cory |
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It's a term my father (Mech Engr, RPI) uses that I started saying too. ;) "Just remember, before I went to college I couldn't even spell "engineer" now I are one!" John |
I think FIRST should require all referees and other volunteers that could alter gameplay take a test on the rules of the game, and be forced to pass. Passing would be an 80%. Less than that would be failing, and would mean rejection.
Definitions need to be clear cut, so all the team lawyers can't whine about things, and what exactly rules mean. Things like "intentional damage" need to be clarified. (cough mid-atlantic regional cough) If refs do not apply the same version of the rules to all teams, they should be called on it. Personally, I think it's lame that "intentional damage" at one regional translates to "hitting a robot that is disabled, even if no damage is done" or "having the 'intent' to do damage" while at another regional, it is only called if real damage is done. The refs should be penalized for blatantly bad calls. FIRST officials should read this forum and take some of our advise - it would spare them a lot of grief. |
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Actually...
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Actually.... a lot of them DO read the CD posting religiously. And some are mentors for active teams so they do know the game. But every year the game has loopholes. Maybe the game should be approved by lawyers first before the kickoff release to close the loopholes... but it would be tied up for years!!!!! :D:D :D |
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Letter from Dean Kamen: Dear FIRST participants... I greatly regret to inform you that the whole first national comepetition is canceled for 2004... the reason, is that no one who was supposed to be a ref, passed the test.. oh well better luck next year (add biggerwords and some filler and you got the letter... i have the writing ability of a 9 year old) John: today i spoke to the other adult advisor attending the Fourm, and he is gonna bring it up for me/you/all of first:p |
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AND, if two teams are warned about a device on their robot, and another team has the identical device...... team A is called on 'endangerment' after their first incident... however, team B was not...... :mad: ..... I know it is impossible for all of the refs to be identical at all Regionals, (it's life, these are dedicated volunteers, and there is human error), but, it would be nice for all refs at the same Regional to agree on their calls. |
John I think your ideas for recognizing college FIRST mentors and other adults via award or scholarship is an excellent idea. I've been thinking about that for a while now (for not all unselfish reasons :)) but never pursued it. Alas in a couple of months I will be graduating.
Along with everyone else reading this thread that is attending the Forum I will try to present these ideas and others up in SC. On another note, I have not met many of the other college FIRST mentors involved on other teams (didnt make it to the webhug at Nats). I did say at Nats., "Hey isn't that Ken Leung." but that was about it. Hopefully I'll see some of you around next year. |
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Andy B. |
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Now, can you talk in the 3rd person, and add on your newest title? "Woodie Flowers award winner, Andy Baker thinks that..." ;) :D |
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Matt |
I am not able to attend any forums. I do have two areas that I would like addressed.
Batteries - This seems to be a perennial issue. I think FIRST should either crank down on enforcing the two battery rule or make it easier to procure additional batteries. Those of us that have been around have enough of the 'newest' Exide's, but what about the rookies or 'low-buck' teams. Pit Crews - I would like to see a policy that allows the pit crews to join the drive team during Finals matches. With the close timing between matches I would like my most experienced techs available to fix the robot. If anyone can champion these issues, I would appreciate it. Andy |
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Matt |
the complaints about intentional damage are valid. I was not aware there were alot of intentional damage calls at other regionals. If anyone's been to St. Louis they know that the rule is very loose. The only way to get that call is if you really do destroy the bot on purpose for no apparent reason. Also in st. louis if you did damage a robot trying to accomplish the game you weren't penalized, it was that way in Houston also. (IN our division anyway. Like I have said, if you try to get away with 1/8" aluminum bar for protection you are taking a risk.
some suggestions for 2004: hold nats somewhere that specializes in many kinds of entertainment. ex. epcot The games are meant to be a headache don't lawerize them. MORE MORE MORE freedom with materials, this includes many things like pneumatics, electronics, etc. (auto mode could get better with more electronics options.) keep cheapening costs the games are getting better-this years made you think alot and kept you on your toes. |
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http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...threadid=20921 |
We've always used the previous years batteries for testing and the new 'fresh' batteries for the competition.
Also here is a potential concern: -Can FIRST help teams start off-season competitons? As in giving discounts for field components, telling us where to find materials, etc? Can FIRST help endorse some off-season competitions (as in an offical off season competiton vs. an unoffical one). -Make rules WITHOUT loop-holes. Have them open-ended yet very specific on what you CAN'T do. |
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...and official off-season competition would be... a regional. FIRST is very much focused on the show. That will always be the difference between an off-season competition and a regional. Quote:
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FIRST does promote off season competions, atleast they put them up on their web page last year... gotta find them though |
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And how can FIRST stop teams from lawyerizing rules? It's only natural to find loopholes and exploit them. Unfortunately, teams also exploit the volunteer nature of judges and referees to their advantage. Anyone remember 2002 with the "no tape measures allowed due to entanglement" home zone strips, and a few rather entanglement prone mouse bots not getting called on? |
Actually Im against the creation of an award strictly for college students. Let me explain why: I see too many college students not being able to balance well college and FIRST mentorship as it is!
With the new drive to push college students as mentors and to get their colleges involved in FIRST, and the time they devote to the program, how do they have time to seriously split their lives. College is a little different then the workplace, and frankly I think it is a place to prepare ALL of us to be better mentors. This is not to say that you shouldnt mentor or volunteer, but it is to say that there needs to be balance. Also Ive seen students who have devoted too much time to this program while in college get burned out, sometimes from both first and college. Also why should college student mentors be considered any more special then the rest of the mentors who put in so much time and effort? |
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So, perhaps it isn't unwise to recognize a college student who has done exemplary work to inspire high school students, while still maintaining a level of minimum performance in their own classes. The incentive to be a good mentor for our teams is strong; almost too strong, sometimes. Perhaps, by offering such recognition, maybe with a scholarship attached, it'd offer additional incentive to avoid burnout. In the business of inspiration, you don't need a degree. |
Does that mean that we should have awards for specific groups now? I dont believe having segmented awards would be the answer.
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'Too many' doesn't always mean all. Everyone has a different experience within FIRST. A lot of times, people get mixed up because college and FIRST both take up a lot of time and effort, but wouldn't that make the feat of keeping it all together all the more extraordinary? |
We had a team meeting last night and I asked the students for their comments about the game and the competition this year. Only about a third of the team was there, but most of the core team members were there. The responses are taken directly from my notes. The students are identified by their functions on the team.
Driver/programmer/electronics/build: Robot should have to do something more challenging - lift itself off the ground or climb something. Ideally, the field should look like a jungle gym. More autonomous mode, as much as half the game. Which will require a more capable controller/processor. Headsets with mike for the field team so they can communicate during the game. The driver couldn't see the robot a lot of the time this year. The Walk from the pits to the field at Houston was too much. Field strategist/build team: The music at the driver station was too loud at Richmond, the allies couldn't hear each other to plan strategy. Build team: The game was too simple, not enough challenges. The music was too loud. Animator: The field needs some dynamic element like the seesaw in 2001. More autonomous, maybe even all autonomous. Field strategist/build team: The Walk at Houston was too much. More autonomous mode. Carpet is boring, make the playing field out of ice. Build team: More autonomous mode, make ending autonomous mode voluntary with a bonus for running autonomous longer. More sensors and electronics allowed or in the kit. My comments: Autonomous mode was great. It should get longer. The idea of getting more points for doing more in autonomous is good. There should be a single, very difficult task that will score lots of points and can't be easily undone. Not enough to win the game, but 30 to 40% of the available points. The Walk at Houston was too much. The pits at Houston were great. Greg |
I agree with Greg ^^^
I also think: why should college mentors be given special priority over "regular" mentors? Should we make separate awards for every "kind" of mentor? I agree with Ashlee on this one: college students should not be separated from normal mentors, for all the reason's she described. Although an award is a nice incentive, it could also be a potentially dangerous one for students not being able to juggle school/themselves/FIRST at once. |
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Like I said earlier, I didn't establish the precedent. Furthermore, I think everyone's made the point that such an award should require that students successfully balance school, FIRST, and their other priorities. |
Then you must define "college student"
Could I take 1 or 2 night classes at the local community college, and do FIRST the rest of the time, and be eligible? Could I be taking extra night classes as an adult, and be considered a college student? Then why don't we make an award for the most distinguished disabled mentor, and the best woman mentor, and the best minority mentor, and the best redhead trilingual mentor, and...:( |
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I think your going overboard on the "specifics" of this. FIRST could have a review process similar to the existing Woodie Flowers award. Each team could submit one college mentor they feel is worthy of receiving this award. They will list the details of the mentor they state, as well as why they are deserving. The review process would take into consideration exactly how the college student balances his/her positive contributions to this program, with his/her academic studies. I didn't mean to start this much controversy. The way I see it. College mentors often put a LOT of hard work into this program. I'm not disrespecting the "adult" mentors who are a part of this competition. I simply felt that many college students deserve some recognition for their contribution to this program. I also feel that, while many of the college students put a lot in, they wouldn't be able to compete for the Woodie Flowers award with the likes of Andy Baker, Bill Beatty, Mike Bastoni, etc.(if you read my initial post, you'll see that I want MORE recognition for adult mentors as well!). I just think that FIRST is leaning pretty hard on some college kids. For instance, more and more college students are volunteering/helping to run FIRST competitions. As I said above, FIRST is emphasizing college teams, and forming MORE college teams. In NH, Deano himself stood in front of the crowd, and challenged each and every HS senior to found a college team. In Seattle, Jeff Seaton did the same. I mean... cmon. Do you honestly believe that FIRST would present these young college kids are with a Woodie Flowers award? "Woodie Flowers award winner 2004: Amanda Morrison, for her work in founding 1020, and her overwhelming contributions to the FIRST communitty!" I'd love to see it. It would prove FIRST has their "money where their mouth is. But... it won't happen. THAT is why we need a seperate award. We have College scholarships for HS participation. We have the Woodie Flowers award for Adult participation. Why not something else? By the way Ben, "The best red-head trilingual, redhead mentor" would be elligible for the Woodie Flowers award. Whereas (in my opinion) students like myself would not be. *shrug* I hope this clears up my thoughts on this issue. John |
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I saw a picture of the first year of FIRST. Was that corn? if it was, I'm from Iowa we could easily get some corn for the next playing fields.:D |
#1 require a skilled operation that can't be undone once done - maybe something that probably would require 2 bots.
#2 liked the different surfaces not the cost of them though - stick with readily available materials #3 Judging and the judging process needs looked at especially for the Chairmans award - ie all criteria stated up front and the judges have told me they would like more training/education. #4Limit the number of teams to certain venues St. Louis was way to crowded and I believe each team only had 8 matches #5 A better job was done this year on enforcing rules but I believe there is still room to tighten this up - Could we get one volunteer for each regional to get better training and be the ultimate judge. I could donate and extra day - I don't have a life during the season anyway. #6 Give rookies an extra 2 to 3 days - just to figure out how to ship the darn thing. #7 College mentor award yep this needs to be done. Would showcase FIRST #8 regional mentor award, parent teacher or dog doesn't matter. #9 need another regional in the midwest - for our team it is either st. louis 8 hour drive or Houston 10 hour drive. Colorado / Denver is just as far so no relief there. sounds good Ken |
College Mentor Award
To define "college student," I'd make a requirement (and must submit proof) that the mentor is enrolled in a full-time undergraduate program at a college or university. Perhaps there should also be an age requirement too, something along the lines that they must be under 25 years old.
I suggested this at the Manchester forum, the idea of a College Mentor award was recieved rather well. I think it would be a nice addition, it may not have specific criteria... basically the team will tell the College student's story, and it'll be up to FIRST judges to decide who may have had the most impact on their team and on FIRST. |
Ahhhh... Multiple topics inside one thread... Must... Resist... Replying to all topics....
As far as a college mentor award goes, if it have to consider grades and how I do in classes, I am outta that league ;P. Being a college student is a phase in life, the part where you do your own thinking and form your own opinion, the part where you try to see what life is and what you want to do with it, and the part that forge you into the adult you will become. I do FIRST during my college years because I was able to formulate the thought: "Doing FIRST is a right thing to do". It turns out it is one of the most important experience I've ever had growing up (not the participating with a high school team part, but the college years where I opened my mind to a bigger level of participating in FIRST). It might not be the same for other college students. As much as I like having an award for college students and their contribution to this competition, I can't help but think about a concern I have. What if it sends the mixed message saying "FIRST is the greatest thing you can do. Come back again when you go to college"? Now, instead of opening the students' mind to do whatever they want to do at the school, we are just sending out more kids to colleges so they will start more college teams. I just feel that's too heavy of a responsibility for the college students, at a delicate point of their lives where they are facing changes and possibilities. I am not saying they cannot handle it or anything. A lot of them can, and did. If we set up this award, now every new college student thinks they have to have a college team... And say each year 100 such students successfully recruit a new rookie team into FIRST... Even if 25% of those college students burns out because they cannot handle the initial stress of going to school AND FIRST, that's 25 student life that's affected by this award in a negative way. I am not saying doing FIRST for college students is a bad thing. Not at all. What I am saying is, doing FIRST when you are at college is good, if you do it at your own pace, when you decide it will be a good experience for you. And that, I think, should be left to the college students decide. Not because some award in FIRST says "doing FIRST during college is cool!". I just fear that someday when we tell the students too much what they should and shouldn't do, we will be limiting their vision when they are supposed to go see the world with an open mind. I want to stress the point open mind because I think that's a crucial element in the process of growing up, especially when you go off to college and started thinking "hmm... For the past 12 years I've been told what to think. Now it's time to form my own opinion about everything else". I just don't feel right when we spend too much effort attracting graduated high school student to come back to FIRST, and not spend enough time checking out the many things out there. Again, I am not trying to say doing FIRST during college year is bad. I am just trying to a concern will happen if we do set this award up. Sincerely, Ken Leung P.S. Oh yeah, I do think college kids should be recognized! I think FIRST should recognize us by setting up our own "FIRST College Student team party"!!! ;p ;p ;p. It would be great to have a park just to ourself for one night! P.P.S. Oh yeah, just kidding... or am I? o =) Hehe, with enough of us college students getting to higher places in FIRST... This might actually happen one day. Kids, the moral of the story is, go to college! |
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Matt |
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FIRST is ALREADY sending that message to college kids. I wish to god Deano would get up on stage next year and say something like: "Now, all you graduating HS seniors, here is your homework for next year. I want you to go off to college, and explore new things. I want you to get to know yourselves, and learn who you are. I want you to get used to college life, and I want you to focus on your grades. Remember kids, your grades are very important for your future, don't sacrifice them for playing with robots!" (this is the speech I give new Freshman on my team) but Deano WONT DO IT! As long as Deano is herding HS FIRSTers onto college teams like cattle, he might as well reward the ones who do it right. John |
The bigger problem (as far as I've seen it) is that freshman college students are encouraged to immediately become involved in a team in college. Then, for a variety of reasons, they often become disenchanted with their college team. And this has the ability of turning them off to FIRST altogether. It's really unfortunate but it seems as if that's the way it happens.
Matt |
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Now that my new life long goal is to beat Dean someday (by inventing something better than the Segway, or FIRST, either one)... I suppose I don't have to agree with Dean all the time ;). My problem is what Matt said. When we encourage the freshman college students to start their team in college right away, or be involved with an existing team, there are often the risk that there are too much stress between the changing of life style, school, and FIRST all together. There are some who can handle the stress... There are others who can't. Those who can't will become totally frustrated with FIRST, and eventually choose to ignor it like a bad year they don't want to remember. We have seen quite a bit of examples already. Not all the FIRST college students are still around anymore. I think it is unfair if Dean/FIRST is shifting the responsibilities of getting more teams onto College Students' shoulder (I am not saying they are, I am just saying if they are doing it). I think it is unfair to ask someone who've been inspired by the program to do something better with their lives to come right back in and take on the job of inspiring more high school students, thinking it's the only thing they can do after they go to college. I think it is unfair that the inspiration for science and technology turns into inspiration for new college teams. Doing FIRST during college year isn't a bad thing, as long as it's out of free will. As long as the college students are given all the options in front of them, knowing they can choose whatever they want, understanding the amount of stress and work it takes, and having some support to help them through it, then I have no problem with it. There will always be the Super College Students (SCS) who can do anything in the world twice in the time others can only do once... Those are the success among college FIRST participants... But they do not represent every college student out there. Those who aren't SCS might not get the reward they deserve by burning themselves out in a team freshman year. To me, that's a reverse of what FIRST do to high school students. If FIRST really wants to create college level participation and wants lots of it, they should work hard at creating a program designed for college students. Something that will fit into a full time student's schedule, something that will earn him/her credit during the school year, something that will recognize the amount of work they put into and how much the got from their participantions. Think along the line of co-op programs... The students will never be asked to work full time AND take the classes of a full time student. Instead, they are given credit for the job, or get paid by the company, and their school recognizes what they are getting out of the program. Now that's real support. |
Honestly, I dont think it is a bad thing if a graduating high school student doesn't get involved with his or her college team their first year in college. Im not. In college, grades are your most important issue, not a robot or a robotics team that will most likely kill your GPA. I will be keeping in touch and volunteering at probably one regional next year and I should be loitering around the championships. This advice was given to me last week, but if you do not go with a team in college ever or right away, keep in touch with the program, keep in contact with your connections, and volunteer. One day down the road maybe one of your contacts might set you up with a good job after college.
So the long and the short of it: If you don't join a team keep involved through volunteering at events and keep in contact. |
disillusioned
...I think that what is or isn't important about college, FIRST, and their interaction should be left to the individual to decide.
It just breaks my heart and destroys my hope to see everyone so intent on conforming to the system and playing by the rules. I thought that this was the group that was supposed to change the way the world works, really. But every day, I'm learning and seeing that it isn't true and that's very little left that seems to separate the people here from the people everywhere else. |
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Re: disillusioned
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If you want to do college FIRST, start a team. If people do not want to kill themselves in college doing FIRST and school at once: why should they be pressured into it? If it was up to me, I'd work on getting the current FIRST teams up to a satisfactory level, rather than start new ones. To me, better teams are more important than more teams, and mulitiyear teams are more important than rookie teams. If anything, pressure current teams to make the best robot the can. Forget making more teams while current teams remain unable to field a working robot at thier regional events. |
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It has nothing to do with pressuring anyone to start a team, or pressuring them to keep their grades up. It's all about recognizing that the mold isn't one size fits all and that, for some of us, things work out a little differently. I chose FIRST over college, taking this last semester off rather than letting my grades suffer as they'd done previously. Will I be in school longer as a result? You betcha. Do I regret it? Not for a second. I made that seemingly unpopular decision on my own, and I get really tired of seeing the entire world rag on it as if it's a "bad choice." It's a choice. Let it be a choice. Part of college is growing up. Part of growing is making choices. Part of making choices is learning to live with their consequences. Why, if Dean and Woodie continually coax us on to be involved in college, is there so little collegiate support for college-aged FIRST mentors? Just as high schools have adapted curricula to the FIRST program that allows their students to receive credit and compete with their team, why isn't there a similar movement or support for a movement for college students? Clarkson allows this, to an extent, in that the work done for their team can be applied toward the requirements of some majors. Why is Clarkson an exception? Instead of challenging that convention, it's a lot easier and makes a lot less waves to give the popular answer and say, "Concentrate on your grades because they're more important." Maybe. We don't all color inside the lines, and it's a bit tiresome to think that the only suggestion we're ever given, and the only precedent we're bothering to set is a mantra that encourages following the status quo. I just can't understand the predilection that most people have toward choosing grades over mentorship, particularly when all of that combined energy, manpower, and experience could be so much better at really effecting change in the lives of those people. Wouldn't it be better for FIRST, and us as an extension of the home office, to work at integrating FIRST mentorship into our college curriculum and requirements than it might be for FIRST to lose the students its invested so much in already to burn out and concern over better grades? I just don't see this as a case of either/or, though anyone is empowered to make that decision for themselves. I see this as "why not both?" Maybe I'm just selfish. |
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Clarkson University emphasizes "Team, Project Based Learning" wherever possible. The FIRST robotics team falls under a program known as SPEED (Student Projects for Engineering Experience and Design). Through this program, the members of our team are eligible for "Pass/Fail" Credit which can be applied toward a profesional elective later on. Members are also eligible for completing independant study projects, which yield, normal course credit. The cool thing is... Senior year, all Clarkson Mechanical Engineers need to complete an "Integrated Design Project" working in a group. FIRST robotics qualifies as one of these projects. So we have 5 seniors who work on our robot design, and submit a large report based on the design and analysis as their capstone course for Mechanical Engineering. I can't wait to be a senior, because when I take Integrated Design, FIRST will be my primary class! :D I believe several other schools do similar things, but I'm not sure. John. For more information on Clarkson University, check out: www.clarkson.edu |
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Some faculty are forward looking and have been undertaking this task at a few institutions over the past decade. The administration at these institutions also has to be convinced to put together the resources to support the activity (usually money, space, faculty/student time, fabrication resources). What is the benefit to the institution? How does this activity fall within the institution's mission (which is usually educating college students, not mentoring high school students). How can high school students best help this process? Go to a school that already has a FIRST team and tell the administration that you chose that school because of the FIRST team. Or, try to get a faculty member involved by selling him on the benefits (to him and the school) of a FIRST program. Point those faculty members to existing "model" programs. Or, include Krispy Kreme donuts in your fund-raising activities. Make sure the faculty know that continuing receipt of KKs is contingent on the continuation and growth of the FIRST team. ;) Quote:
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I fully agree, and thank you for the great ideas. I hope to use some of them... and of course, incorporating FIRST into the BSU curriculum would not only be a benefit to the institution itself, but also a stairway to greater community involvement.
And John, thank you for the shameless plug for Clarkson. ;) |
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:) |
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