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What does your school do for FIRST?
From talking to different people there seems to be two different types of school involvement in FIRST. There are the schools who become really involved, they advertise it as a good program and encourage teachers and other school faculty to get involved, they help fund the team, give them a space to work, and most importantly recognize all the kids on the team as leaders and really make them feel like what they are doing is important and worthwhile. Then there are the schools who seem to want nothing to do with FIRST, they might give them a closet to work out of and a little funding but they don’t help advertise and they don’t recognize the kids which can make it had to recruit new members. So I would like to try and find out two things with this thread. First if your team is supported by a school like the first school above what exactly dose your school do for your team? Secondly if your team is from a high school like the second school from above what dose your team do to rally support and find new members?
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Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
We get funding (most of our funding is from them), plus a room to work in. Some of the administration will come down for a couple of hours at our local competition.
Funding pays for teachers, practice field, and the kid and competitions I believe. |
Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
I think it's hard to just classify schools as one extreme or the other. At Vanden High School, we've been lucky to get $5000 each of the past 3 years and I get to teach a robotics class for the past two. But in CA, times are changing for the public schools, our superintendent who gave us the $5000 from her budget, has now left and I was also informed last week that next year, they won't pay for my substitutes during the competitions - it'll have to be taken out of my sick leave or raise extra $$ to reimburse the district. On the other hand I still get to teach a class with handful of dedicated students - which is nice. We work out of a small room in the back of the school that was built by ROP Construction students years ago - it's to small to fit any major equipment just our supplies, drill press, work table, and a computer. Last year, we got a TIG Welder, Drill/mill/lathe combo unit, and a CNC but they are kept in yet another storage area. It's a real pain to try and supervise students in three or four work areas, but it's better than it all being in my classroom.
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Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
At my school I have been able to create classes to supplement the learning involved in FIRST.
The Principal has been our biggest supporter and is willing to give money as we need it. Last year he gave us about $6000 and this year has already given $4000 and is waiting for me to ask for more. Tomorrow Wed. March 9 will be a big day for us as we will be recognized infront of the entire school for our Peachtree Chairman's Award during the Basketball State Championship Pep Rally. Even on TV during the State Basketball game our principal mentioned that our robotics team was competing. |
Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
Our schools started out in the 1st scenario, we had great teacher support, the school supported us, all was well. Then over the past 4 years the support has been steadily declining to a point now where I see the 'absolute' minimum support that they could possibly give us and keep their name on the robot. There is zero $$$, all comes from my company, the kids don't fund-raise at all, the engineers end up having to babysit as well as try and teach, it is really frustrating. It has finally degraded to the point where most of the mentors are looking into switching teams for next year unless a mojor overhaul takes place. The principal of the school was a strong supporter and has now moved on, the new principle either doesn't see this as valuable or believes that the GM mentors will run the whole thing and it isn't necessary for the school to provide any support.
When people take the time to volunteer they should ALWAYS be treated like volunteers, things that you EXPECT from a paid employee can't be expected of someone who is giving up their time and effort out of the goodness of their heart and their belief that this is a valuable and great program for tomorrows engineers and scientists. When I volunteer at a FIRST event, FIRST makes it clear to you that they couldn't do it with out you. |
Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
We get funding from our school, they give us a place to work and encourage teachers to get involved. In the past we have received monetary support from our school board. Our principal gave us permission to have 2 courses in teh cirriculum for robotics, giving students involved credits for their involvement. However, even though our school supports us, we are only allowed to bring 4 teachers to Pittsburgh. Even if we pay for the supply teachers, we are only allowed 4 teachers. It doesn't make sense because normally our principal supports us. This Friday would be the only day the teachers miss and seeing as it is the Friday before our March Break (which is a huge joke, no one goes to class at all), our principal still will only allow 4 teachers to go. Other than that, we have our own classroom (small, but at least it gives us a place to store our tools and what not).
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Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
The total extent of our school's involvement is that the teachers don't have to go to the faculty meetings during build season and we have a room to build in. In fact this year we had our business team send a letter out to all of the faculty inviting them to come by and see the students at work and ask questions, and not 1 teacher stopped by to support the team. As a teacher myself it makes me very disappointed in my colleagues. The principal did stop by one evening, which was a positive experience since we had representatives from several local companies in the shop at the time. Still, they have even cut our bus transportation on Thursday and Friday (our regional is local). Very disappointing.
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Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
A couple of teachers are terrific -- awesome -- magnificent. The school itself? We get to use the woodshop during build season. No financial support from the school the PTA or the booster club. At least so far :). Next week, we start financial and organizational development work for '06.
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Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
We get great support from one of the School boards some money and interest. We are a four High School team. Three from one district and one from another. The previous two years we got from the three school district a great shop teacher and space in one school, last year it was the shop. That teacher retired, and doesn't have access to that space any longer. We were supposed to get space and a teacher from the single high school, The new teacher went to a couple of meetings and It became clear that he was too busy, and access to the wood shop was going to be a big problem. So we bought a drill press and moved the build to our clay studio and garage. Year four will be a big challenge.
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Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
We get to pay about $2,500 to use the school :D. Aren't we lucky?!
The administration itself is pretty good though, but they like the sports teams better :( |
Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
My principal gave us $2000 toward the entry fee for our regional. We use my Tech lab and machine shop to build in, and I get some duty days to attend competitions. That's the good stuff. On the other hand I get very little help from my colleagues, which is not good, and that translates to little support from the student body, which is worse. So I guess the glass is half full, or half empty, just depending on your viewpoint :) I'm just happy to be here!
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Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
wow! most of you guys seem to get money from your schools..that's really nice..we don't at all...some recognizing but not a lot...the teachers get some money but not a lot for their work...but it is nice that they allow us to continue on having a team and having a pit at south fork hs...most money goes to our sports teams which is normal...one cool thing that came out of having a team was for the current new hs in our area, Jensen beach hs..the school board talked to one of our machining sponsor groups..the treasure coast round table and came up for the engineering program at Jensen beach..so that was cool for us....but i'm glad to hear there are various school districts that fund teams..so much money to raise...
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Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
wow! i'm impressed (jealous) of the support that so many schools share with their teams. our team combines 2 high schools and in the 7 years we have received a total of 500. the school board does not show support, we pay for our own local transportation, the administration doesn't show up, teachers are not paid for their time BUT when we win, then we are "their team". they feel that our sponsors will take care of everything. it does get old after awhile. our team fundraises year round as do many teams in the FIRST community
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Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
our team is pretty lucky but it only came after many years of hard work and some lobbying
- of course the school gives us some storage rooms and a limited tech space to work on robots (most of the real work is done at the BMS facility) - our buses to the local events are "arranged" by the science supervisor ( a team leader) - the head coach (me) and my assistant have stipended positions on par with a coach of a team sport such as soccer. I think this was the first position of its kind in our area but others are forming. Of course robotics season is year round at NBTHS. - the district pays about $3000 for the travel expenses of the chaperone staff to the long distance events. Generally half of our operating budget is student raised and the rest- a huge chunk of change- is due to the extreme generosity of Bristol Myers Squibb, our sponsors and mentors. We could never operate without them and we are indebted to them deeply. WC :cool: After thought- perhaps the best thing our school does for us is lets us be. As a coach I have a lot of freedom to operate that other coaches don't have. We repay them by giving our best to make a quality team the school can be proud of. |
Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
we got a lot of money from the school this year from a principal that we don't always agree with. So that is definitely good. We also get 2 rooms and the gym to work and practice in, which is really nice for the school too. So I guess, this year, our school has really given us a lot of support, when in the past they barely want to recognize us, let alone give funding.
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Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
Our school, Nonnewaug High School, decided years ago to cut all funding to us. We currently have no staff members from our school working with us. They do no provide a space for us to work on the robot. We have students from other high schools and from middle schools in town and out of town. Our town and school seem to hate us, but we somehow come out strong, hence the fact that this is our 8th season. Now, THAT is called stickin' it to the MAN! heh, had to say it
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Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
My team is inbetween the two. As far as funding, we are all privately sponsored, and as far as getting the word out, we're mostly on our own. However, we do get the support of some of the administration, the pricipal's daughter was even on a local FIRST team a few years ago. Also, we get the support of some of the maintenence staff and the industrial tech teacher gives us the woodshop afterschool for work, and the auto shop teacher lends tools. Not really one extreme or the other, though. Our first year there was virtually no support that I saw, we didn't have a teacher, we worked out of a student's garage, and the school administration didn't even have any idea where we worked, but this have changed, thankfully.
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Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
After reading all of the replies, it makes me feel lucky that our team recieves much suport from our school.
The schoolboard built a new middle school 4 years ago, and basicly gave us a building that we can work in. We have 2 classroms and a dedicated shop for our robot, as well as a break room. We recieve much support from our schoolboard, as they gave around $6000 to us to go to regionals and nationals. Our schoolboard has a certain fund of money that comes from vending machines, lunches, etc. to give to groups that go to national competitions, which basicly paid for the regestration. Also, we get alot of funding from Virginia Tech. We are funded by the Virginia Tech School of Education for $1000+ dollars a year, as well as many other sponsors. Virginia Tech also offers a mentoring program, where Engineers can recieve collage credit for helping our team out. Our team has greatly benifited from these ties. The schools also do their fair share in helping us out. We draw from four high school in our area, with the robotics class being offered as a vocational, mathmatics, or science credit at each school. This provides a boost to membership in our program. After reading these posts, I see that our situation is more of the exeption than the norm. But our school is very suportive of our team, startig with our superintendant, who was hevily involved with first, and recognized the good that can come out of cooperation between the school and team. Thats my $0.02. |
Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
Wow, some schools really have it bad.
The first year our school participated, several other high schools(about 5, it was before I started High School) in our district were completely funded for the competition. That was the first year the schools in our district had vending machines, so all of the high schools in our school district were funded, at the very least to one regional and a couple thousand dollars for funding. Our school district is the area around the Silicon Valley Regional. Every year since, we started in the 2000-2001 school year. Three years later, as our district was phased with budget problems we received less and less, until we received no funding in 2003. We have had Compaq, San Jose State University, and United Defense as our sponsors. Only United Defense has stuck with us. But, a couple of parents provide funding for food, and our mentor digs into his pocket for drinks and food as well. Years before students would provide their own food and drink, but our main mentor got really organized better this year, and we have lots of things to thank for that now :) We have two mentors that help us from school. Our main mentor is the technology, and computer science teacher. He has a huge room, with lots of tools and spends so much time with us during build time that he almost becomes estranged from his wife and family. He does most of our fund raising. He is always looking to get support from the school and the district(He is heavily involved in the Teachers union for our school district). Our other mentor from school is our Physics teacher who invest as much time as he can. Although they enjoy helping us, they would both be happy with a stipend for helping us, or at the very least get more attention at school. Our other mentor this year is an engineer that works for United Defense. He's a great guy that has really helped us out this year. He's really thought us a lot of things, and I can actually say, truthfully, that I learned many new facts and skills this year. Our original principal a few years ago would acknowledge us, and would encourage people to show up. A few would, and thats what counted, especially considering it was a ten member team up until last year. However, our district has an unfortunate policy that does not allow a principal to remain at the same school for more than 5 years I believe, and he had 8 at ours. So our new principal last year didn't really acknowledge us until she showed up for an hour at the regional. She was appalled that we did not have universal team shirts for everyone, so she really looked around for funding and got us money for shirts, and safety glasses, for everyone on our team from construction company that is putting in new windows throughout the school. She's letting us borrow the school mascot suit as well this year, so watch out for a bulldog at the Silicon Valley regional this year. I know the district has even tried putting together a FIRST LEGO robotics team at most of the middle schools in our district, but only one actually participates. We really don't have problems with transportation since the city bus goes from our school to San Jose State University, where the regional is held. |
Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
My school does not really support our team much at all. They clear us for regionals and nationals but that's about it. The principal didn't even bother to come to our open house, although a vice principal did. We get more "recognition" from the Kokomo Area Career Center. They help with some of the fabrication and the head of the KACC came to the open house and he is also very much for PLTW (Project Lead The Way). Hopefully, if we win nationals again, the school will finally give us some backing... :o
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Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
Since our inception our school has virtually done nothing for us. Oh but how they love the reward of seeing us bring a banner or trophy home. For the last four years we have had to pay to use the school for building the robot. From a high of $1,300 to $716. All of this comes from students hard earned money. The custodians sit in their room and do nothing most of the time while we work. No other organization in our school has to pay. I would like to know if any other teams need to pay to use the school facilities during build time.... Maybe we can straighten it out when we talk to the board the first week in May. :confused:
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Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
We have some support, but not a lot (We did get school program of the year from our PTSA). We don't recieive very much money, if any (I don't remember for sure)...We don't even have our own space to work, we use our school auto shop..which means CLEANING every night before we leave and having to keep our poor auto shop teacher there into the wee hours, both of which suck. But as we showed today by finishing Second at GLR, we can still be strong. Hopefully this will get us a few more sponsors and more support for funding. (we unfortudently can't afford a second regional...and i don't even know about our backup parts for nationals.)
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Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
Our school gets us buses to and from our regional (30-minutes away) and a van for moving the robot. They let us use a closet and two classrooms, with maybe a few tools that we didn't get ourselves (no workshop or anything like that). Otherwise we get no funding and rarely get recognition from our school, we managed to get one article in the school newspaper about a month ago. Our team just talks to every person we can about robotics and hopes people get interested. We got one of our big school board members to come to our regional though, so maybe things will change.
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Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
NOTHING.
No money, no teachers... not even any recognition. Although they did notice we existed after we won the UTC New England Regional last year (alliance partners 176 and 177). Coincidence? I think not. |
Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
We haven't gotten much before, but this year we're getting the $6000 to register the team.:) The school principal does not support the team. We get no recognition from the school.:( We have been able to get a room and storage at the school.
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Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
We don't get any funding from the school and we don't work on the school grounds. We get a bulletin board and their blessing (we get to recruit openly in the auditorium. The supply us teachers and students and they come to the regional). So i guess it's decent support.
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Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
This year, we've gotten more open support than before. We were asked to do a demo at our freshmen orientation (for recruiting purposes) and our administrators were just amazed at it...lol. They also provide us work space/let us use the shops and such. We also have 2 teachers as coaches who get their subs payed for to come with us to competition. However, we get no financial backing.
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Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
-One of our top sponsors
-Kept the old metal shop around for the robotics team after they removed the classes -Our main advisor allowed us to convert a sub-room of his classroom into the robotics room, where all of that year's parts are kept. -Gave us a storage space in the basement of the school for past robots and spare parts. -Kept an emphasis on PLTW courses and recently recieved an award for being a top recognized STEM school by SME of Milwaukee. -Were very cooperative in allowing us to stay late -Supplied very awesome janitors who would constantly drop everything to let us in to a classroom, or the robotics room. -Allowed us to use the library for driver training and practices. Personally, I think our school has done a great job in keeping our team going. |
Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
I've been reading this thread as it has developed and I have a couple of thoughts I'd like to share.
Realizing that we are working with schools, systems, administrations, and cultures from many different places, I would like to think that one way to begin receiving from the schools is to give to the schools. To develop a relationship with the school, the district, the system. Develop it as we would a relationship with our communities and our sponsors. Working at it. Find ways to help, pitch in, contribute, participate as a team and representing the team. If the school is not doing anything to support the team, offer a way to support the school. Not all systems are run smoothly or to our liking, that is true, but it does not diminish in any way, that FIRST robotics teams can and often do find success even in the most difficult of circumstances and situations. An opportunity is always there waiting to be discovered, we just have to look and then see what we can do to help create change. |
Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
There is a similar disscussion here http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=45472 which also could be looked into for more information on this subject
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Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
Our school administration is not too supportive of our team, except for the janitors, who are pretty cool. The school at least gives us a little bit of money and a room, which we are really thankful for.
We have a huge problem with the metal shop because they won't let us turn on the power without a 'Certified Machinist', even though the students using have been trained by the metal-shop teachers themselves, and are watched by a teacher. This issue is understandable as the school can be liable. The problem is that we don't have any "tech" teacher's who support our team. They are the only ones in the school who are 'Certified Machinists'. We almost always have to get a parent, who is a machinist, to come in all the time. Last year, this parent was very gracious to send us one of the machinists from his company almost everyday. Anyone else have this same problem? How do you deal with it? Going to another facility is not an option (something about our school board not allowing us to =S ) |
Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
We get some funding from the schools, room wise we use our teacher advisor's classroom, a big shop class style room with no shop tools. We have to pay for school bus usage (even to travel less than a half hour) and our teacher has to pay for his substitutes from his class budget, but they do grant the students school business absences. The custodial staff has been helpful in letting us in and out of the building. This past year we've been getting more recognition from the schools and district, we had one of the schools principle and the superintendent of schools at our robot unveiling this past year. But on the other hand our with the schools level of involvement we're pretty much free to run things our way, we're just one of the 70+ clubs & sports teams.
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Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
Honestly our school does nothing or very little that I know of to support us. We for the first time this year had to have a woodshop in with us to use the tools in the woodshop. And we had alot of difficulty finding one to just help out on some Saturdays. Our teacher wasn't planning on running robotics again next year cause of it. She changed her mind and is going to run it but we still probably have to find a woodshop teacher to come and help out atleast on Saturdays. The school at first wasn't willing to pay for a woodshop teacher to help us out for some reason. But finally they did pay for the woodshop teachers time. I am not sure if he is able to help out next year so we might be stuck with the same problem that we had this year.
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Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
We have it pretty well compared to some other teams I know. We're allowed to use the bus for transportation without cost, we get a decent bit of money from the school and it's foundation every year, build space in our pre-engineering classroom, and we're allowed to stay until about midnight or later during the build.
We lucked out this year and had a major administration change and got our Principle and Vice Principle to go to the NJ regional on Friday with us. Now they're big fans of our team just because we were doing so well out there. I've noticed that once you can get an administrator to go to an event getting support for the team is much easier. |
Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
Our team is actually run out of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. Currently, we get a good amount of financial support by the university ($10,000 next year) by registering the team as an official student organization and running that way instead of through a high school.
We are asked to do a lot of things around town including parades, expos, and demo's for 'prospective student' days. The only thing we are really lacking currently is space. We build the robot each year in a study area in the science/math/engineering building (sorry to people trying to study), and are given a small area in the basement of the building for storage. Luckily, next year we will be moving into a brand new engineering building where we will be set up with a building area, a new machine shop, and hopefully, more storage area. Unfortunately, we receive little to absolutely no support from the area high schools. We have no high school teachers working with the program which makes receiving student participation a lot harder. We are currently working on this. We do have the ability to rent school vans for transportation of tools and robots but we still must pay half the gas cost I believe. |
Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
We get no funding from our school. All our funding comes from outside sponsors. We do have a pretty nice place to work. An old metal shop room that they don't use and more it's a good amount of space.
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Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
In 2004/2005, the school board requested we remove the name of our school district from our literature since we are not an official school club. We tried to get "official club" standing and were turned down because:
1) we do not have a paid administrator or teacher 2) we include home school students and those from different districts However, we have had support from individual teachers and principals. Some of the instructors not only provided extra credit for our participants, but also for any student attending a FIRST event. Two of the principals allowed "field trip" status for students concerned about their attendance. |
Re: What does your school do for FIRST?
Our team is a collaboration of two schools; one school supplies most of the kids, while the other supplies facilities.
From the first of the mentioned schools, we get very little, but still some, support. I'm pretty sure we get no money, but we have atleast one mentor, hopefully getting more, and our school is completely ok with us missing school for demos and competition. Unfortunately my school is not equiped any shops or even drills, which is where the second school comes into play. The other school, that also gives little to no money, gives us our better machinests and has some of the best shops in the city (Milwaukee). They've given us atleast one mentor (expanding) and have let in their doors at least 30 hours a week during build (normally more). The team is relativly unknown at both schools due to lack of student interest, but we do get a decent amount of support. |
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