What does your school think of robotics?
 

Does anyone else have the problem of being considered the "Geeky" or "Nerdy" team at school? A lot of the teams I've seen at competitions seem to have a lot of support from their school.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Interestingly enough, my kids were talking about this just the other night. They were talking about how it's more the cool kids who are on our team this year, the swim team, the wrestlers and I think George said he played polo? But anyways, while I was afraid of this happening, this year, it didn't. I'm very pleased by that.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

At the girls' school, we're considered the "geeky but cool" club, somewhat like the drama club (which is pretty intense here). It seems that pretty much everyone knows of what we do, and many are interested to hear stories from the regionals. People are especially hyped about the team participating in Championships... We get A LOT of support from peers, teachers, and administration - which is completely awesome compared to the first year, when the team was just considered a "shadow" of the Science Olympiad club.

My point being - it takes time, but every team will eventually find its way toward establishing school support.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

haha! I wish my school was like that. The other students have no idea what it is and they make fun of us for it. Were are defintely the nerds but hey we like it and we have gotten used to it so it's all good. It makes us tighter as a group. :) The administration and teachers love us though so thats a plus.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

pretty much our whole school knows of the robotics team, and it seems that a lot of the people with whom I have spoken know, appreciate, and support what we do.
We get a lot of support from our peers, teaching staff, and administrators

- Rafi Ahmadullah, nerd and proud

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Funny Drew, we are in the same team and I dont feel that way. :confused:
In my opinion people in schoo people l aren't aware of what goes on with our team. However they dont make fun of us, they are actually pretty good friends and most of them understand that rootics is something that we like. Also some peple that are not relly interested in robotics have joined our team because of the artistic part of it. I will agree in one thing with you Andrew the staff and teachers love us. So Drew next time someone makes fun of you, let me know. lol :D

Dave

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Hmm... I usually get something like, "Cool! You guys build battlebots or something?" from the general public, "Robotics is eating you alive!" from my friends, and "How's the autonomous code coming along?" from teammates.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Depends on who you talk to.. Some people think it's awsome others think we're losers... But hey, it's their loss not ours, not one night goes by when we don't have 1 really good practical joke or stupid comment that you need to stop working for about 5 minutes just to laugh at somebody. (we don't take offense because everybody has their night to get picked on, just some have more nights than others.)

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Teachers- Ask about it ALL the time and are proud of us for making an effort that is academic-based
General Public- "Battlebots? COOL!" Me- "No actually (_____ insert nerdy and factual content based on that years game here" General Public- "ooh... I guess I'll... check that out sometime"
Fellow students- "Oh, so you're in robotics? interesting..." Some ask what it's like, some consider you a geek and laugh, others think it's great and become team members!!!
Fellow Team Members- Well... we just love being "geeks" despite the fact that we're really cool! :rolleyes:

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

We don't have too much of that kind of problem at our school. Our school is for nerdy and geeky kids. ;-) (it's a magnet school).
Our school never really was too involved until 2003. We incorporate teachers to come "babysit" one night in the build season so that our head advisor doesn't have to stay each night. This year, we had 15 teachers step forward (some for more than one day!) and help us out. It was great!
Also, our administrators weren't too into the robotics thing until January 25th, which was Thank Your Mentor Day. We had a little "Tea With The Robot" thing, celebrating our mentors and sponsors, inviting the community, parents, school advisors and teachers, political figures, sponsors, possible sponsors, and, of course, our mentors. Our administrators came to the TWTR, and they were so amazed at what we do. They said it was a shame they found out about what we were really doing now, than earlier. All of them were supposed to come to our regional, but unfortunately things came up and they were unable to attend, but they will be watching Nationals! =)
I'm very excited about their involvement. They really will be a big help to us next season, once they get even more involved (since they found out so late this season).
You see, this is why FIRST is so amazing. Anyone and everyone gets psyched about it. No matter who they are.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

We're pretty unknown to most of the student body, but we're respected by the people that know about us.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

We try REALLY HARD to emerge our team into school life. Sure, we may get the geek comments occasionally- but for every "your such a geek!" we get, there are ten more, "That's so cool! How do I join?"
That means more to me then getting everyone in the school to not label us as geeks- it's the people we've actually impacted that count.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Being our first year, our school hardly knows we exist, and if they do they think it is some geeky club. But that is about to change. The shadow claw can not be ignored! Plus, they don't realize how much fun it is...and addicting too.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Our team has members from two schools. At my school, the teachers love it, and my friends think it's pretty cool, although I think they get tired of hearing about it after awhile. The yearbook editor loves it, and she's finding space for a ton of pictures. Most people think it's something like battlebots, and they just go "Oh" when I try to explain, though some of them ask how to join. They apparently announced our team at the winter sports assembly, but we were at Chesapeake that week.

From what I hear, members from the other school get pretty much the same reaction from students and teachers, altough the yearbook isn't as into it.

Our school board absolutely loves us. They've promised $10,000 from the budget next year for us, and we had the Superintendant and Assisstant Superintendant at our regional. Some of our mentors are from the board, too.

People already thought I was a geek before I joined robotics, so there's really no difference, there. :)

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Haha, I get the same exact thing, minus the autonomous thing, we leave that to Kyle O and Mike K.


Our team is considered the lesser known geeky team at school...I actually dont think more than 55% of the school knows we have a robotics team...and this is our third year of being a team!

We dont really get made fun of too much I guess, I mean, occasionally, but mostly we just get playful or not too serious jokes made by friends.

But does anyone have any ideas on how to make the team more well known, accepted, and liked? That sounded kinda wierd, I meant to say, how do we get more students interested? Everyone I ask to join says, "Oh I can't do that, i'm not smart." How do you guys get the word out that Robotics is fun, no matter if you can progam a robot or not?

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

I talk about it all the time, and eventually the amount of fun it is seems to sink in. One of my friends, the least technical person I know, is considering joining just because I make it seem like so much fun. I guess that would be considered word-of-mouth, and I don't think it impacts more than a few people at a time.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Actually BUILDING the robot gets a lot of people on our team. "Power tools? NICE!" When my friend and I originally said, "I can't join that... I break everything!" Our team advisor told us, "Good... We'll give the robot to you guys for 10 minutes, and then we'll know what we need to work on!"

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

I believe that my school has a pretty unique perspective on FIRST robotics.

You see, we only have 450 students, and only about 200 of them are high schoolers!
I think we have about 30 registered members from our school, so 15% of our school is on the team!

We are a district wide school, who use a lottery to tell who they admit, so we keep our numbers consistently low. FIRST robotics is the only high school sport we have! For anything else (soccer, football, tennis, etc) you have too go too your local high school.

After we won the PAC NW regionals for the second time in a row school spirit in support of the team has really sky rocketed. We sell t-shirts almost every day. The astounding support has even amazed me, it was "cool (read: popular)" to support the robotics club!

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

I'll talk briefly about our school specifically and then hopefully provide you with some useful advice on changing the attitude your school exhibits towards your robotics team. "School" is kind of general so I'll break it up into individual categories.

Administration
Our administration is very supportive of the roboraiders. Both our principal and superintendent visit us at the NJ Mid-Atlantic Regional. Every year they are very impressed and make an effort to congratulate everyone on our team at the competition. The school board also recognizes us at a local board meeting by congratulating each one of us individually. The board meetings are aired on a local channel. While they don't provide significant monetary aid, they help out where they can. For instance, this year they are purchasing us our own trophy case. They've allocated us space along a wall at the high school This should go a long way in showing the school how successful the robotics team is.

If your administration is not particularly helpful, I recommend inviting them to your closest regional competition. Have them see how exciting and powerful a regional competition is! Maybe even give them a presentation on your team so that they see how cool a FIRST team is.

Faculty
I'm positive every teacher at our school knows about the robotics team. Teachers always ask me how the season is going, etc. Many teachers ask for demonstrations during their classes. The only advice I can give you on spreading the spirit of FIRST to the teachers is to give a presentation on the team at a faculty meeting.

Students
Peers are absolutely the most difficult group to convince that a FIRST team is cool. At our school, it's hard to pinpoint a general feeling. Some people see us an elite group of science students who do amazing things with engineering. Others see us leaders and college-bound students. Of course there is the group who see us as geeky, but not in a bad way.

I think the key ingredient in exhibiting an image of "coolness" is to show the school how successful you are. No matter what team it is, students want THEIR school to perform well. Also show them the non-robotic parts of your team. We've shown our 3D animation to the entire school.. and everyone is always so impressed. Give demonstrations during lunch periods; if anything, they will at least respect you for your amazing achievements in building the robot. Try to get a group of diverse students involved in robotics. This goes a long way in spreading the message of FIRST to the different cliques in the school.

In the end, don't worry about it too much! Just have fun!

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

This was from an article in the school newspaper about us getting letters:

“The Robotics Team is smart,” asserts Joseph Slaughterbeck, a junior involved in various athletic teams, “However; they don’t break a sweat like the football and track teams.”
This perception is refuted by most Archer GEeks members, Paul Verdeyen, a third year member, claims that mental work can outweigh physicality. “Whereas we don’t physically put in as much work as the sports teams, we put in as many hours, and sometimes more.”

For the full article go to High Tech Tic-Tac-Toe

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

I don't think the whole school will think your a geek if your on the robotics team, it all matters on who you are and who you ask. If you're the most popular kid in school and you join the robotics team, all of a sudden its the best, most popular thing ever.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

That's very true. Since I was a geek before, I still am. I wonder if that makes the rest of the team geeks by association? :)

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

My school digs FIRST. Heck, they even gave it a subdomain: http://palmettofirst.engr.sc.edu/

(Now if only that correlated with a reduction in schoolwork this week! :D)

As for Irmo, back in the dark ages when I was there (irony alert!), I think there was a perception among students that robotics tended to draw the Honors/AP/IB (now) kids. And there is some truth to the statement--there's lots of them there--but it's by no means a prerequisite.

On the administration side, I'm yet to hear a bad thing about FIRST. (I recall my graduation day, I was speaking with the district superintendent on my way into the Coliseum. He's definitely pro-FIRST.)

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

In my schools everyone makes fun of us and calls us nerds. But then again the jocks may have muscle, but we have extruded aluminum :D

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Our team is known in the school, mostly from the science teachers, and a few other teachers, but most of the student body considers the team "geeky" or "nerdy". We do better than our football team who seems to only win one game a year, yet, the football team gets more respect from beating our town rival, than when we beat 10 or 20 other teams. We work really hard, but the only people we really get recognition from out of the school is the janitors that we've made great friends with, and the teachers. After each competition, we'll put something on the announcements that'll say that we went and competed at such and such a place, and how we placed, but that's about. We've altered our very narrow display case so there's pictures of all 10 robots, and some of our trophies, and its in front of the library, so its hard not to miss it (plus its pretty bright, yellow sticks out). But the main feeling about it is either wow, how can I join, or wow, that's real lame. It's a hard thing to explain to someone (and not have them look at you like you've just spoke in a foreign language to them) and have them completely understand it, and get excited about.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

our team gets a lot of support from our school, even if we do have a slightly geeky reputation. :rolleyes: we aren't a club, with officers and dues - we're a team, with captains, the ability to letter, and any other privileges any sports team in our school receives. even though our board of education can't afford to support us budget-wise, it still recognizes us as an asset to the school.

students are a bit different. i know my friends have no problem with me being on the robotics team - they know it's what i love to do, and they don't consider it uncool or anything of the sort. some people think you have to be smart to be on the team, and all you have to do is work on the robot, but that's untrue. ;) when we recruit members in october every year, we try to attract artists, writers, builders, video game players, the works. there's something on our team for everyone, and we try to attract a diverse crowd. even if we have some certified geeks on our team (haha, love you guys :D), we aren't labelled as a nerd group. :)

i don't think, however, that a popular person joining a team would make the team more popular. maybe that person just wants to be on the team - his decision wouldn't really make others truly want to join as well. they might have a higher opinion of the team, but it wouldn't change what FIRST and robotics stands for.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

I personally could care less about what the rest of the school thinks about it. Our team (like katiyeh07 said) really gets no recognition from even the faculty. I don't understand the lack of interest from the teachers perspective, we are the most successful team in the school not to mention the fact that it is one of the only one's with a future after high-school. When you think about it the only real people who complain or make fun of it are the ones who are involved in nothing. So when they get out of high-school and have no direction or promising future they can look back and realize what they missed out on

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Sadly, our school still considers us a club. But I have yet to see one of our sports teams be the #8 seed in an international competition. :rolleyes:

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

basically to sum up what mike said, our school hates us. they are convinced we take all their funds and thats how we earn our money.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

We are considered nerds but since when is that a problem? Robotics is the one place at school where it's okay to be a nerd. I say be proud of your nerdom, I wish I had a badge that said "ROBOTICS NERD". To tell you the truth, more than half the students at our school wouldn't be able to do this. Build a robot in six weeks? Forget about it, they'd tell you. Don't try to get the whole school involved, get those that want to do this, the brightest minds in the school will do. Seek out the willing, the able, and assemble your schools' elite nerds. Put a small army of nerds, in a room, give them a computer and some metal, and you will have a fully functional robot. Can I get an amen?

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

O yeah, and I don't believe wrestling or football will get you even the slightest chance of leaving the state much less ATLANTA!!! I remember a time when being in the chess club meant you were a nerd, those days are long gone thanks to FIRST.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

haha yea, our football team was a state champion, but i don't see -them- going to atlanta and winning there! :D

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

our school district reconizes the program but doesn't support it that much
as long as we fund ourselves and pay attention to rules and reg. we are okay

at my school, SFHS, our principle thinks it's pretty great. she always tries to come on saturday of ucf to see a few matches.

for fellow students...they think it's cool..consider us a bit nerdy but that's okay...we are all proud to be in s.p.a.m.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

For those of you who think you have it rough, meet the (gasp) homeschoolers. At least two teams are pretty much all homeschoolers (1315 & 330). Homeschoolers have to: 1) rustle up funding from wherever they can find it and
2) Find a place to build.
On the other hand, you know most of the people in your group, at least by sight and name, and they know you, so you don't have to put up with the nerd and geek stuff as much. Unless you're already one. :rolleyes:
It's also a little easier in the recruiting department, though not much. Administration? Parents of the students, for the most part. They leave us alone or help out.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

wow, first off, let me say, I believe the correct term for the robotics race is 'NERD'. There is a grand difference between the word 'geek' and 'nerd'. If you've ever seen Revenge of the Nerds you'd know what I was talking about.

I'd have to say, seldom, if ever, is the team acknowledged by the general population of my school.
But, when teacher and peers ask me why I miss so much school, and my reply is 'Robotics'... the concensus is usually positive. "oooh thats nice" or "hmm, so, is that, like, a new club"

My friends laugh at me and just tell me to join the cheerleading squad.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

there is a kid in ne of my classes that says he could esaly lift the tetra on to the top gol (he is 4'10") and thinks he could build a robot by him selff (he gets D's and down on his grades so he is not to bright)

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Show him a tetra. If he can lift it, show him a center goal if one is available. Have him try to place a tetra. (He probably can. If he were 3'...)
As for the building a robot by himself... Ask him if he means LEGO Mindstorms or a competition robot. If he says a competition robot, ask him how long it would take. If he says less than six weeks, get him aluminum, motors and hardware. Give him a challenge and say, "have this done in six weeks." If he succeeds, put him on the team.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

They may call us geeks and nerds, but deep down under that prejudice they know they want to be the hard-core, sleep-deprived, hand drill-toting, robot builders we know we are! (woot) :cool:

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

haha thats so our school too :p cepts its why isnt this working? go check the programming! when its CLEARLY a mechanical problem :P *cough cough* jk jk hehe

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

My wife had told me once one of her students commented that the team was just another way to "seperate the smart kids from the regular kids". What a sad statement and I hope the acception not the rule because we don't only take IB students on the team but the so-called "regular kids" from jocks to kids strgulling to get by in school (though they are required to show improvment if they are to stay on). FIRST should never be looked upon as some sort of adversary but an opportunity.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Our team is made up of two different schools (rival schools i might add) Cocoa Beach and Rockledge. The first time i walked into the cafeteria at Rockledge High, i saw two beautiful trophy cases just covered in PINK with trophies, pompoms all that wonderful stuff from our team... and was immidiately jealous. my school (cocoa beach) barely acknowledges our existance, and it seriously makes me mad. Cocoa Beach students make up about half of the team this year, and we barely get recognized. just this year before UCF we had a "Pink Day" for everyone to show spirit... about a grand total of 3 people remembered who werent on the team. it was seriously pathetic. We have a few teachers who are really into it which i have been begging to get to actually help out with the team because Cocoa Beach does not have any teacher mentors, and the librarians love us to death which is nice, but its not good enough. even if we dye our hair for spirit at competitions PINK, we have to dye it back before we go back to school if we dont want to get suspended for having "distracting hair". we had a student last year from rockledge who had no trouble having her hair flaming Hot Pink, but even with pink streaks, we'll get yelled at. (i know i'll feel the heat when i get back from nationals this year, but its worth the risk in my eyes) We couldnt show a promotional video for robotics because our principal was very concervative and didnt like how there was video of girls running around in pink body paint with bikini tops on (we later went through the video frame by frame and found that there was no such footage... :mad: ) My school is comprised of a great deal of IB students, so robotics kids arent really labled Nerds or Geeks, but i doubt we'd care since we sport pink "Nerdstock 2k5" shirts at school and competition alike, and i personally have a pink armband that says "I <3 NERDS". i seriously wish my school would show more support. we have this thing called "Pizza and Sodies" when someone/some people do something well extracurricularly, they get pizza and soda on friday for a small "congratulations". when we came back from the UCF regional, our win was not announced to the school (and if i was i did not hear it), the only thing i saw was a slide or two on the rolling announcements that no one ever really looks at. we never really got congratulated on a grand level... and when before i left, people were saying "good luck you guys, i hope you win this year" i was about to scream "we win something every year!" but thats not exactly gracious professionalism and it makes me seem arrogant and i dont like that. but the fact remains that people dont really hear about us at our own school, despite how well we've done in consecutive years for 8 years in a row.

i dont know.. i'm sorry for this really long Rant... just my two cents and a little vent in my frustration... but for those of you who really have supportive schools, i'm happy for you. :) you guys are really lucky.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

our school suports robotics alot, You will be able to tell cuz we brought 700 pple to gtr regional last year and we will be doing the same this year.

were lucky to have all the suport, principle is also in love with robotics

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Yeah, I get that a lot too. At the beginning of the year I asked a bunch of my friends to join, and that's exactly what they said. But now that I've explained to them all the things they could do in robotics, I think a lot more may be trying to join next year.
With the students at our school, a bunch of them have no idea what robotics is. Well, they may have a smidgeon of an idea from the school paper, but I don't think they really get it. The teachers give us a lot of support though. I think all the kids who are on the team have a bunch of their friends on the team too, so we all kind of hang out with each other all the time. Although, we do get called nerds at school, but it's always in a joking manner. We call each other nerds all the time too, but we all know we love each other. Even if we weren't friends to begin with, we ended up becoming friends from spending so much time together for robotics. :)

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Well...a lot of the teachers are interested when I tell them, but not much more so then like "what is it? how did you do?" The administration is interested, but not a huge supporter. They do fund us however and allow us a room in the school.

I'm not sure how many kids know we have a robotics team - not that many I think. Or if they do a lot think they can't do it. Which is unfortanate cause we could always use more kids. :(

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Yeah, usually when we get called nerds and geeks it's not in a very serious way. And some of us are so cool that it makes robotics a bit cool too.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

My team is pretty much the same way. Every year at one or two of the pep-rallys we drive around but my school is our band so no one else gets much coverage. everynow and then we get made fun of, but its only the night school kids so we just laugh and keep building...

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Being from a school of a mere 500 students lends the the robotics team to much notice. Few think its only nerds or geeks who are in the club but almost 90% is made up of athletes who often have a conflicting spring sport. The club also attracts the car fanatics in our school, one of those myself, who love working with their hands and customizing everything possible, so our robot comes out w/ a sick paint job thanks to our talented air brusher (Chris Yankun). So when we got the bot up and running in the school it tends to attract a crowd, personally I enjoy chasing them. Unfortunately myself (driver)and most of the build team ( all 5 or so of us ) are graduating so good luck to the team after we leave.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Our school likes robotics. If it was not for our board and parent organizations we would not be in FIRST. They have help with being a FIRST team for 6 years. I would like to say thank you to them. But we would like to attend the championships, so maybe next year, EASTERN. Good luck to all the teams

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Our administration likes the team, comes to certain events for a bit and remembers to wish us luck/congratulate us, but we have to go to them to inform about our happenings (which isn't necessarily bad or good). Most of the teachers like the team (except the ones who can't stand it when their students get our of school for *gasp* two days). The students react differently: some think its cool, some don't really care, and some make fun of it. People's negative responses don't seem to bother me anymore; they're uneducated about FIRST, so they don't have a good basis for their remarks. Overall, I think we're a bit neutral - we function kind of independently. Like some of you said though, I would love to get rid of the "club" title.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Our school knows about us a ton more now that we won the Chesapeake (thanks again to Rage and team 53).

In fact, with all the publicity that we have been getting since 2 weekends ago, we are riding an up wave right now.

See everyone in Atlanta!!!

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Oddly enough, my school seems to barely know the Pink Team exists...weird huh? :confused: we have like 1 trophy in our school office (we have two schools on our team...the other school has the rest of the awards...) and its an imagery award whereas Rockledge has everything else. And its kinda funny cuz last time I looked at the award it had no base. it was just the three things coming up from the base. I asked where the base was and the Dean comces out of her office and says "I really don't know". Is that supposed to make you feel appreciated? Our school doesn't seem to care how we do at competition. They don't even seem to care if we do competition...makes me mad... :mad:

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

If anyone were to make fun of robotics in my school, I'd personally kick their (for ettiquites sake) butt. But Anyway, for the kids that do know that we have a robotics team, they wish they were in it cause we get to go on those overnight "trips", because thats the only time they ever hear about it, :P.

Seriously, I almost punched a kid in the face for calling me a geek, and trust me, I look like no geek.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Well I have to admit, most of the people on our team are geeks. I think that it's a title of honor considering it might as well be "boss" or "head supervisor" or something along those lines.

As far as school support goes, we're a district-wide activity with students from 4 local high schools. THe school that our main mentor teaches at with engineering courses and such brings in most of the team membership, but at the other schools we're fairly unknown. We're vagabonds, we've never had a perminent build site. The district supports us a lot by paying our entry fee, but we're still not getting a whole lot of recognition. Working on that. They'll give the lacrosse team a party for going to state, but it's still hard to get something for our team after winning 2 regional championships, and getting semi-finals this year. Guess it's just not a real "team compitetion" Oh well, we'll be working on that :)

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Actually, since our team is the MOST successful at West High, we shouldn't be regarded as geeks/nerds. But I don't go there so I wouldn't know.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

As Budda said, at one of three of the schools our team represents, our Robotics team is the best thing it has going. The football team, horrible. Baseball, nobody cares. Basketball, a joke. Robotics, more winning matches in one competition than our football team has had in the last 8 seasons, literally. Which is really sad.

But it gets worse...this school doesn't do jack for our team. The new prinicipal, is "supportive" of our team, but we get no money, and are not allowed to do any fundraising, because its competition to the others teams at the school. Every year, the congratulate our team on the announcments..and thats that. Its too bad really, but hey, its their loss. As a student attending this school, it does kind of dissapoint me..but like i said, their loss.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

I hear ya on that one. All we get from our school administrators or our school board is a handshake and a weak "Thanks". In previous years, we have gotten some monetary support, but we will be going your way soon, QC648, since our district just found out that they have a nearly $3 million deficit from consistent over-spending. You would think that the most successful team in the entire district would get a little more recognition :rolleyes:

Other than that, most of the kids in my school know that we exist, and a lot of them joke that we are a "cult" because we spend so much time together. Who wants to go out with friends on a weeknight anyway when you can spend the night at school and play with robots the entire time?

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

The kids that know about us are either friends with a team member or a tech student. I guess those kids think it's kinda neat, but I'm pretty sure the rest of the school (we have about 3000 students grades 9-12) isn't really aware of the team. My French teacher likes to call our school the Shenendehowa Country Club because of how centered the school is around sports. All our school money is poured into sports, especially football. It's pretty ridiculous that football (not swimming or crew, etc) gets a lot of funding while our robotics team just gets payment for substitutes when the teachers need to go to competitions.
And it's not like the administration shouldn't know anything about us - we've been involved since year 1 and we've always done pretty well, but I think most of the administration has only heard about us in passing. No one has ever bothered to come see us compete (except the tech department chair).

...yep.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

It's our first year, I only remember one response from a girl in my science class:
"Meh, Nerds club."
"OMG Jack! You're such a geek!"

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

You know at one point in high school. Our school did in fact believe that we were the geeks, nerds, and outcasts. But I think they finally realize that FIRST is an excellent program which is capable of molding many students in excellent leaders in the technology, science, and mathematics field. Knowledge and experience like that would someday most likely make us the future business leaders of top companies. I believe they would realize that someday they will be working for us.

As Bill Gates once said, be nice to the nerds in high school for someday they will be your boss.

Now leaping to college, Central Connecticut State University does not have a team affiliation as of yet. But we are strongly in support of FIRST Lego League. CCSU is actually the State Competition holder each and every December for the FLL competition.

So I believe that each school has its own feelings on FIRST Robotics Teams.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

At our school we are definitely look on as nerds mostly due to the fact that football controls the school. A girl i work with and goes to my school laughed at me because i was on the robotics team, but then i told her "Im proud to be a geek". Only a select few support our team, and thats only when we actually win.So our school doesnt exactly support us, even the administration doesnt support us.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

hehe. if it were that easy, you wouldnt be asking then!

frankly, our school as a whole hates us. the adminstration doesnt know what to do with us because we dont comply with all the standard rules for clubs and whatnot. yeah, thats right, we're the deviants.

everyone else at school either goes "robotics? duhh...whats that" or "dude you build battle bots and destroy stuff?!" or "omg that must be so hard. youre weird." the computer science club supposedlly feels threatened by us

those who appreciate us are those who have seen or experienced. those who have any idea what we actually do have respect--especially when certain individuals rebel against the system and hack the network (hehe...oops).

unfortunate to say, only so much can be done with no support or help from the school. pretty stupid if you ask me.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

School: "o_o.... we have a robotics team?"

-_- yeah, that is the responce of a lot of people at the school. It's not because we don't advertise and support it... it's because people at our school is oblivious....

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

xxxour school could care less about us... our school is PURE SPORTS!!!FootBall(ALL the booster money... oits as if they think that there is no one els ein the school other than them) we don't even get funds... and i mean the booster money just went to a feild that they didn't need and insurance for their teeth... have YOU ever been attacked by a robot gone wild after school?!?!? heh whimpy football jocks... never been hit with metal but they need insurance when they have PADDING... we have our killer safty goggles mwahahahaha hey... everything yellow ... tee hee kewlal :D

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

most of are people care more about our basket ball team than robotics. And yes, everyone thinks we are geeky or they don't even know we have a robotics team cause they tune us out when we tell them about it.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Most of the school hates the robotics team because we go on so many trips and we also got to fly on a plane to go to nationals. I just think they're jealous and they don't have the commitment to join robotics. Oh well, their loss. :rolleyes:

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

well in my school people think it is cool. i get props for it almost everyday. the teachers ven give me a break on some homeworks

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

After a brief survey I have made a list of geeky teams at our school in descending order.

1. Chess Team
2. Scholar Bowl Team
3. Math Team
4. Speech Team
5. Robotics Team

As you an see we have barley cracked the top five. But we will keep trying.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

At our school, the band geeks and robotics geeks (which are pretty much the same people) are pretty much just considered geeks and otherwise ignored by the majority of the student body....

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

My team's Robotics team is usually ignored or unknown by most of the students...however, we are not as geeky as we seem. We not only have geeks, video gamers, and anime-maniacs, but we have "cool" people, a couple metalheads (the music lovers, not the Robotics team), a whole bunch of dudes who play basketball, and 5 girls (OMGWTFBBQ!).

But...a girl in my History class looked at my T-shirt, the team shirt, one day, and made a O_o at the 2004 Robot's name (The Dentist). She said "That's pretty wierd...do you guys even have any social lives?"

Yeah, that about sums it up.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Our administration likes the program and is proud of us. But all the popular football people are the ones that get the fame... They just call most of us geeks! But hey that is cool :D GEEK POWER!

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Our school thinks-

"geez- how does that team manage to do such incredible stuff when we do so little to support them"

If the real question is what do most of the kids think, my response is "who cares?" - the real question should be "what do the kids on the team think of their own performance on the team?"

The opinions of others (especially children) about the value of things they know little about is of very little interest to me.

Down off the soap box again....

WC :cool:



(?????- whats a soap box Mr. C.??? )

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

our school is so big and we are a rookie team so not many kids know about it or what it is. all my football friends know about it and haze me a lil about it but they know that it wont do any good and that I love it too much to stop. Also what they dont realize is that all of us will be making more money than most of them in the future and we are the ones that will be driving the technological breakthroughs of tomarow

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

our school didnt think much of it at first but after our first regional in 2003 and ended up winning the competition part we had a pep rally and all that jazz(our school is really big on competition and winning...but we are gradually helping them realize the benefits of robotics) this year our team is using the administrative building for hq and thats cool cuz its like we're getting recognized by the school... but the biggest thing is that this year robotics is a lettered event... thats huge... so it just takes a while to get the school to understand the program but once they do you become one of the cool nerds ;)
good luck

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

some of us have just come to realize that we are geeks...but we are Cool Geeks :cool:

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

We have growing support at our school, but it's very recent. We do not receive any kind of monetary support from our school, the main thing we get is a place to build and keep stuff. We have a good amount of teachers that help us by staying and "watching us" during build season (we have to have a district employee at all times to be working there) that way our main sponsor doesn't get completely burnt out.

Prior to last year, very few people knew about our team (even though last year was our 5th year), but we did fairly well at regionals for the 2nd time, and the Principal came down and saw us compete. We got to show the robot off at a pep rally last year, and at club day and a state-wide student council assembly this year, so we've become alot more recognized this year.

We do get somewhat labeled geeks and nerds, but alot of people think are robots are pretty cool, so it's not in a bad sense, more in a "we know alot about technology" sense.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Our team comes from a very small school (about 450 people) so most of the people know about us. I would say that there is a large amount of support from administration, respect from the teachers and not much from the students. Because we are such a small school, most of the students who are not involved have at least a few friends who are, so we don't get made fun of much. There are people who call us nerds, but its all in good fun :)
Overall, we have a pretty supporting school. However, jurisdiction-wise, we are probably the most troublesome group. We aren't a team, with letters or anything, and we really aren't a club. I mean, what club meets almost every day for 6 weeks and sometimes pulls 40+ hour weekends? So in that respect we have a slight problem with the administration in the specifics of what we are allowed to do and where we are allowed to go.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

I come from a school of a little over 1,200 and everyone knows exactly what the robotics team is. We are one of the most respected groups in the school and are considered the "popular" group in school.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

At our school, school pride is below zero. I would assume the most common thought of the average student at my school is "I am not smart enough to do that" or "I am not that nerdy". Nerds are not really made fun of at our school, they are left alone, and other people usually just place them in a group that they will be a part of. This basically means that we are left alone as a team, people know we exist, but don't care.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

The people of my high school could care less about robotics. They are too simple minded to understand anything. I feel sorry for them. (Well, some of them). We are the only team or activity that ever wins anything at our school. If you combined all the games our sports teams have won, they still wouldn't compare to how many matches we have won. So once our school knew that we were actually successful, they decided to cut us off and canceled our robotics team. Sounds foolish eh? The people that were on the robotics team aren't really considered "nerds" at our school. We had people on our team such as the valedictorian, the prom queen, the homecoming king, and the quarterback of the football team.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

A lot of our team members were also in band but most of them quit after their freshmen year due to lack of space in their schedules.

Anyway, my school knows us as 'the people who sell truffles' because that's our major fundraiser. :P

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Yea, and frankly I am known to be "the truffle seller"

But it's more than just that, some people I've talked to who aren't in robotics think we're a bunch of smart people/ geeks/ nerds/ genieses... u get the idea. And that their intelligence cannot compare and status cannot go down that low to join. But they dunno what they're missing! Seesh! :cool:

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

T_T most of the people at our school don't even know of our existence..

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

they show a lot of support at our school

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

people at our school don't even care so people don't feel bad. it is the best thing going here at our school but is so lowly recognized. as they say the black cloud that covers pch prevents that from happening. we were at the board meeting a few weeks ago and our occra team was highlighted and the people there were actually shocked at our success we had the best program in the county winning 8 awards in 6 weeks plus the founders award similar to the chairmans so it was a good year for us but yes we are overlooked!!!!!!!!
:) :eek: :eek: :(

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Most people at my school either don't know or don't acknowledge the fact that we have a robotics team. But, it is not seen as nerdy as it could be b/c we also have a science olympiad team, and that has a good number of kids. To be perfectly honest though, the kids in robotics and science olympiad are the "nerds" of the school.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

The students on our Robotics team must deal with open hostilities from other students and even some teachers. Now that we are in build season several teachers that normally give small assignments or no homework have increased the load to make it difficult for Robotics. Our students have been assaulted because it is a "smarts" activity. Every day that the entire team does not just quit I consider a victory.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

we are definitely the "geek" club of our school. my school is an all sports school if u in nething besides sports such as robotics or debate you are considered a geek. because we devote all of our time to robotics our school mates gave us the nickname lab rats which is out team name. they don't make fun of us they kind of admire us. they constantly ask us how we do it some of them are just afraid to join because they think it is extremely hard. when we go to competition i kno they are not going to be there to support us because they dont have a way to get out to the competition, which is kind of sad :( .

~sheyna

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

"What's FIRST Robotics?"

I hear that one a lot whenever I'm telling somebody about the team. The only people who really know about FIRST are the people who take multiple technology classes and/or go to Tesla, our school district's engineering charter school.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

" We have a robotics club?" is the response I get the most. Sometimes I talk about and people say something about a kid who isn't in the club and claims he is and because of that is saying he's better then everyone. *sigh*

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

I must say, seeing as we are a rookie team, we are actually quite well known in our school. People have asked me about the competitions and what we do after hearing about the team on our school announcements. Our school district has given us quite a bit of exposure, with our picture being on the school district website (which everyone must go to in our school to get onto the internet), saying our results on the daily annoucements, and allowing our local paper to write a feature article on our team and the Technology and Engineering Club as a whole. (our FIRST team is just one part of a much larger club that involves TSA, FIRST, and a few other tech related subjects.)

Probably because I can be identified with the smarter people in the school, a surprising amount of sports guys ask me about the team whenever they annouce something about us or put us on the website. But then again, we didn't really have anything that remotely resembled FIRST before this year, and a lot of people are amazed that we are able to build a robot from scratch.

It also helps that everyone knows the Tech Club as the ones who used to sell Krispy Kremes during midterms and finals... all of the ones near us closed down, so we had to switch to Dunkin Donuts this year... :ahh:

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

I don't speak for my whole team but most of the people that i hang out with (That aren't on the team) at my school don't even know that there is even a robotics program

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Like for example today as I was leaving my 6th hour i carried out our 2003 robot from Stack Attack. Everyone was asking what it was and howq it worked. I simply said that it shoots a large out about 12ft and knocks down alot of big boxes, with the fore to knock you unconcious. Everyone was like cool and asked if it was for robotics.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

This is almost the opposite of our school: The students that might dislike the team keep to themselves and we are generally accepted in the student body. The teachers are supportive of us, but the administration doesn't support us very much at all.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

While we don't get money from the school, we get adequate support from administation (if we do well) and very enthusiastic support from the teachers. Students are another issue, I guess. People at our school are really involved, but robotics isn't a big thing. There's always the people who think that you have to be a genius to join, or that all we do is build a little robot with spinning saws and attack other robots (YARR!). But recently we've been making a huge effort to show the school what we're really about and how much fun we have, and it's paid off. For the first time ever, we have a team of about 30 girls. I've had people tell me that they thought it was cool that I was obviously so in love with it. I think all you need to do is show people your passion for FIRST (because i KNOW im not the only one whose absolute love of robotics comes through whenever i talk about it), and they'll be intrigued to learn more and more willing to be supportive.

:cool:

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

everybody regards us as odd since we have jackets :ahh:

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Most of my friends just get disapointed when they find out Robotics isn't anything like Battle Bots. -_O

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Pretty much no one in school knows about us. The School Board thinks we're their really loud neighbors (not our fault they're having meetings right in the middle of build season!!!) Even the geeks think we're weird :rolleyes: But I think the best time was when my older sister had to go pick up a fellow student at lunch from the high school during the middle of GLR, so she went to the school in the middle of lunch....completely forgetting the BRIGHT orange feather scarf and that her face was covered in blue and orange face paint...She got a few odd looks :D :D

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

Unfortunately, our school does not even know our robotics team exsists....they know there is this large classroom in our basement that has lots of robots in it, and there have been random kids wearing "bobcat robotics" shirts, but other than that, our school isnt very involved. However, our team has more than doubled in size, and hopefully we can spread out more to our school.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

I still think we have it really bad. We our a High School team building a robot in a Junior High wood shop with equipment that is older then some of our mentors. They are almost 50 years old and a fire in the wood dhop for us is a weekly thing know. The wood shop classes never cleans up after themselves leaving sawdust to catch on fire underneath all of the equipment. Plus we get yelled at if we leave a part out on one of the tables, they will either take them or not tell us for a week.

Re: What does your school think of robotics?
 

if this revives the thread then so be it because it is worth reviving.

our school couldnt care less. (considering only about 30 students out of the 3,200 students in the whole school know about it.)
this year (our rookie year) we started with about 15-20 kids who showed interest or were actually working. as the build season progressed we slowly tapered down to about 5 kids who were actually working on the robot. I would say that i probably put about 60 hours into the robot my self. (about half of what the other four spent combined).

it really makes me angry how the other students refer to us over the announcements (we have a t.v. program and it is a live telecast with news and stuff on it) it sounds like they are talking about what is for lunch that day(we have about 6 different options to choose from for lunch and they actually sound more excited for that i think).

but then again i guess i can really blame them seeing as they know nothing about us.


i guess the reason for the low # of kids is because the teacher our sponsor from boston scientific first contacted sat on actually starting the team and spreding word until a week before build season when the activities director stepped in and assigned a new teacher.