Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Well, 675 is at a high school called "Technology High School" where we emphasize on science and engineering, and most of the attendees are pretty geeky. I mean, somebody starts playing DDR in the Spanish Clasroom and a quarter of the school shows up to watch (of course, there's only like 240 students there).

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Just like at any high school you're gonna get people whho think you're nerdy/geeky/whatever... But the truth is we all are lol. I mean, I still surf and play soccer and do many other "un-geeky" things, but come time to play with robots, i transform into ubergeek lol.

Our team has black jumpsuits with Nasa patches as well as patches from all of our sponsers and our names on them and we wear them around school everyday before a competition; we get mixed responses. The general population thinks their cool, some people think their lame; and some oblivious people think we're astronauts visiting the school. But when we presented our robot last year, everyone in the school was pretty stoked. And this year, people are actually looking forward to seeing us present our robot.

As for the rest of the school (faculty/administration), there are mixed opinions. Many of the teachers like the thought of the program, but a select few are resentful due to the "lack of dedication" they observe over the 6-week build season as students focus much more on robotics than they do on their classes (or so they claim). Seeing as how we are a pyblic school with already low district funding, our administration has been hesitant to dedicate any resources towards our program leaving our student financial team entirely responsible for rasin the appropriate funds for our program.

However, as we have accumulate accolades and gained respect and repute in the FIRST community (we, 1717, are a sophomore team) our administration has become more friendly to the idea of supporting our team.

In no way has this been a knock to our school, overall we have experienced huge support from everyone - our principal even drove down to LA on a school day to observe - and our program is quickly establishing itself as a fortified educational pillar of our school's academia. It is moreso the lack of resources that has been giving us problems.

As for the whole geek/nerd thing. Hey, I'd rather be a geek or nerd and build a robot than not lol.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

My school, is anti- everything when it comes to the admin.

They first say that they support you likes arts, and science, and education, then, the drop your budget, limit the people allowed to go to competitions and they don't help you get the word out.

Students, most don't know about us and joke with us ( those of them who know) cause they'd never join but they envy our brains :p

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

haha. Im glad someone brought this up. In my school robotics is like taboo to mention to people and ususally the only thing that people think robotics is good for is a day off. ( In our school if we win a competiton we get a day off )

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

At our school, we have a few very dedicated teachers, and one of the assistant principals really is into the team, but other than that, we have a robotics team? The football and basketball team suck and yet they still get more recognition than we do. Oh well, I'm in it for the Robotics and every thing else associated with FIRST, not the fame.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Let's see at my school, we post robotics commercials on the announcements, team members constantly talk about it, and we show up at rallies. Ask anyone who is not a part of the tech arts department they'll say "We have a robotics team?". Go figure.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

At our school, everyone thinks those on the robotics team are insane, as we drive through the quad on robots or weird carts we made.

But the staff and teachers and those who know what we actually do think we're awesome. (at least I like to think so)

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Our team has always had little support from the administration and the school. Last year was the first year we ever got any money from the school, about a 600$ grant out of the tech departments budget. We acuired a interested teacher 3 years ago thankfully, but the school doesnt really help him and he isnt paid for all his time running the team or anything. The school refuses to let us work past midnight and we have a hard time getting into the school on weekends or days off.

The majority of the school (about 2800 students) does not even know the team exists. We are just another name on the list of about 50 "clubs" the team has. Our school is sports / arts based and the majority of school support goes to the music and sports teams. The football team got a new million dollar rubber grass football field and the whole school had to go to a assembly to learn about it, but the school doesnt even have supplies in lots of class rooms and lots of busted old text books.

Students think of us as nerds and wouldnt ever associate themselfs with us, even though they have no idea what we are. I must say the entire school was quite impressed last year when we drove our robot onto stage and fired balls accross the stage. You could see the entire school jump back as it turned towards them haha ;)

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

About 15-20% of our school participates on our FIRST team (ok, ok, our school only has 300 students...), but this is still a large number. Everyone knows at least that we have a robotics team, and most kids know about the competition. Luckily, we are widely suppored by our administration and faculty/staff, seeing that we are a school for Science and Engineering. I'm not sure exactly what the situation is at the American School for the Deaf (our partner school), but all of the Administrators/Faculty that I know there are in great support of the team.

Jacob

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Null! We started an Explorer Post and meet at our sponsor's offices. Who needs a school?

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Our school wants to be apart of the team. We are some of the hypest peepz in hea:cool:

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

It's been incredible. I remember in October 2005, when the team started, there was a lot of "Robotics? Who would join that?" Now, it's the exact opposite. Team 1713 has become such a source of school pride. It's just great. :yikes: :) :eek:

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

In our school there are those who have no idea about us, a large portion though does know and is curiours about what we do. the same thing can be said about any club. There will always be those who think all we do is a bunch of "Black Magic" and weird club that lives in the technology wing.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

When confronting out principal about the lack of support he told me

"I can't be everywhere at once..."

and so I said

"Well...you could've stopped down during our six week build season once or twice. A few teachers stopped down during vacation, I saw your car at the school, but I didn't see you come down to the shop."

and so he says

"Well, you don't see me attend basketball practice do you?"

at which point I almost lunged across the table to knock his teeth out.


Then I argued the point of how can you be more supportive of the basketball team. I asked him how many kids do you think will go on to the pro's from our athletic teams (note that all of our fields got shut down due to the fact that we have illegal pestisides in the soil) and he says none.


It's frustrating that our school isn't supportive of one of the most successful programs it has going that gives their students jobs at corporate companies.


But we did make a few small steps this year...we got some of our banners hung up along side the athletic banners in our gym and we have one of the better display cases in the school. But it's still not the support we're looking for.

Maybe next year it'll be better...

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

^ yep i definetly know how you feel.
like i said before, the only thing i hate is the lack of participation by the students. we have it pretty good other wise. oh and a little more recognition would be nice too.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Well... As far as recognition goes, take that into your own hands. Email/contact your local newspaper/radio/tv plugs and solicit your robot/program. Most media outlets enjoy having people come to them with stories and will most likely jump at the opportunity to do a piece on you if you sell yourselves well enough. We did so just after arriving home from SD, our second of two competitions, and we now have two local newspapers in line to write articles on us.

Once your school/community sees this recognition, you may just have a little bit more support :D

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Most of my friends think I am a geek for being in robotics. Those same people think I am crazy for spending most of my time at school. A couple of my friends think its cool and want to give it a try which are the friends I met this year. Our principal as far as I know has never come down to see what we do. Its like they don't even know we exist.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

My school doesn't think that robotics is the coolest thing in the world. But usually we get props from the administrators. :D

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

we have finnally gotten over the "we have a robotics team?" response, but we seem to be in much the same categorey as the math team and the science club, the nerds. even some of our own team members consider it negatively as a nerdy activity. one of the freshmen admitted he doesnt tell anyone he is in robotics because it is for geeks. that makes me sad. FIRST is my life.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Does your teammate read ChiefDelphi?
If he doesn't, pick out some of your favorite posts or threads and share them with him. Give him some names of FIRSTers that post here, like Andy Baker, and have him search some of their posts and see the world of robotics and FIRST through their eyes. CD is a great place for geeks to get their footing and figure out just how cool they really are.

Being smart and wanting to make a difference in this world is something to be very proud of. It's also something to have fun with.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Our school has never been very supportive, and we normally get the "robotics":rolleyes: response (especially some of my friends). But we got a new principle this year, and he's more supportive. He even came to VCU. And my soccer team is stilll reeling over the fact that I skipped prom to go to Atlanta, but they're respose is "okay, have fun" (which I did). And anyways, I've always been weird in a nerdy sort of way.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Our school is sort-of supportive. Like the principal and admin and people like us, but the team itself is considered rather nerdy and we literally lose people because of our captains.

Sadly, we haven't done much to actually get anyone to like the Robotics Team, even though this was our rookie year...we only had an assembly before the high school (800-ish people) and then everyone hated us because we took so long. We get a little money, but we have to fix our colours, from black and neon green to white and green (official colours) if we want to keep on getting money for next year.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Our school is very supportive of robotics. Each year, we do a school wide presentation to show off the robot, and everyone loves that. When we present, our message isn't "I know this is nerdy and weird, but see how cool it can be..." but is "This is super awesome, I love it!" and the enthusiasm spreads. :) Since we share a classroom with the video productions class, we get a lot of coverage from them on the school's video bulletin.

Also, we brought two school buses of people from our school and our feeder junior high to the Los Angeles Competition this year, and they all had a blast and it gave them a sense of how big the competition and FIRST actually is.

Our principle wasn't really supportive until we began doing well, but now he is really into it and came to watch us put the finishing touches on the robot the morning before shipping.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

They don't.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Our school allows us plenty of space to show off our robot and demos and event nights and stuff...but reputation wise...pfft...forget it.

Come on PINK...someone's gotta care....

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Our school doesn't really know much about our robotics team. We have a bulletin board and stuff but no one's ever really made an effort to reach out to anyone except incoming freshman. Then again our schools not too accepting towards anyone that's smart either...

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Well thats only partially true. At Cocoa Beach where Ryan goes the kids get in trouble for having the pink hair and are from what i hear given a tough time about robotics from the administration.

At Rockledge (where I go) the administration loves it when we dye our hair pink and they had a special pink day at school when we got back form Atlanta. Not that any of the kids really took any notice but still it was pretty nice. The principal is always letting us go do demos and such during school which is pretty awesome. In fact I'm missing 4th period tomorrow so I can demo 2k6 during all the lunches. The kids themselves don't really look down on us as nerds or geeks, if only because we've been doing pretty good lately, and we have such a large and diverse team as far as who people hang out with. Our team is pretty well networked in Rockledge at least.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Our school doesn't do much. I think besides our National Championship run and the three banners hanging in our "pendulum area" (which has no actual pendulum, just the space for one), they don't really acknowledge us. A little bit of money would be nice, but the school basically just give us a room and that's it.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Unfortunately, our team isn't too well-known around the school.

My school's teachers aren't too thrilled about kids taking field trips (a.k.a. going to a regional event) because it "disrupts learning time." Then again, I don't think they know what FIRST is really about, nor do they know we even have a robotics team. I think that if people really knew what we do and what FIRST is, we would get a lot of support.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

We do get some support from the school, but not nearly as much as we'd like. Our advisor is very enthusiastic, and gave up coaching basketball to spend more time with us. If it were not for him, we wouldn't have had much of anything this year, especially since his van was our main means of transporting the robot to working locations. Also, the principal and a few of the math teachers don't have as much time to donate, but they do what they can (including loan money to the team to pay for the kit). The rest of the school doesn't care nearly as much. The robot does turn heads when we roll it down the halls on our cart, but people who aren't members of the team rarely show a lasting interest. One of my friends (who also happens to be the captain of the robotics team) noted the fact that the school puts more of an emphasis on liberal arts than math and science, and that might be a reason for the lack of general interest in the robotics team. I think the school would care more about robotics if there were more students who were more involved.

Personally, I'm frustrated that the school was able to spend a few million dollars on remodeling our media center (which could have ended up a full order of magnitude better, had they put a little more thought into it), yet they haven't officially given us any money.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

ha i was just talking to my buddy on the team about this

at our school we get alot of support we do demos at lunch and drive at the assembleys.


and for anyone who thinks its nerdy i just tell them we had our schools cheerleaders at the vegas competition ....and they loved it:cool: ;)

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

I don't mean to brag here (I'm just answering the post). Our school loves robotics. They have been bitten by the FIRST bug. Our school has graciously built us our own building which houses a full sized playing field, they pay for all of our regional entrance fees, and our school got a National Blue Ribbon Award for excellence for having robotics. As well our administrators come to all of the competitions. And I thank them for all of this! :)

Cass

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

our principal and the teachers are the only ones who really show us love.

My Baseball Coach Kicked me off the team because i missed practices during build season and i missed 4 games that we lost for regionals.

the kids in the school don't really know what robotics is, they just know that we're nerds. and as far as im concerned,..... being a nerd is way cooler than being cool!

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Our team has respect at our school but A LOT of student still call us nerds. It is cool though because some students admit they would never be able to build or do what we do.

Our team is pretty normal. You have those misfits but we are one big happy family! :D

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

I'm the only student on 145 from my school. I can keep talking and telling them about FIRST, but they will still look at me like im from Mars. I'm doing a demo with a mentor, trying to gain interest in students and teachers.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Bronx Science is highly supportive from the administration down to the student body. About three times as many kids show up to the NYC regional than to any sport held at school. We've got about half a dozen display cases throughout the school dedicated to the teams and their endeavors, with assorted trophies and news clippings scattered throughout the building. To put it into perspetive, our only banner is hanging between the Intel finalist plaques and around the corner from the Nobel Prize alumni case.

As hard as we try though, we'll never be the most prominent team in the building. Debate has us beat by far, apparantly they have a teacher on full salary just to coordinate their team and travel. Until we can get a full time mechanical engineer whose sole job is to run our robotics teams, we'll be second fiddle.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

At my school, we're usually regarded as nerdier than Mathletes and no one really wants anything to do with it. Some of the team member are rather border line when it comes to how much they care about the team.

Most of the teachers support us though, and although our school has yet to fund us, we usually have a few administrators at the Chicago Regional.

We're a little bit of an undercover team at the school, mostly because we aren't from a very hands on town, people just pay to get anything fixed, so people are wary when it comes to building anything.

This upcoming year though, we have a TON of interested freshmen which warms me from inside out!!! :D

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

at my school in webster, ny it is the stupid nerdy club! it bothers me soooo much! I just think to myself well whatever they dont know how much fun they are missing.!!
SparX 1126 Electrical Lead
Nick Miraglia