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Unread 19-04-2015, 09:00
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Sunshine Sunshine is offline
Mr. S
FRC #2062 (C.O.R.E)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Rookie Year: 2007
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 482
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Re: What percentage of FRC teams should attend championships?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Caleb Sykes View Post
I posed a question because I wished to gain a better understanding of others' viewpoints on this topic. Dean, Woodie, and Dave would be among the first to say that being inquisitive should be lauded. I am very happy with the results of this poll and thread, it has already helped me to gain insight on this subject.



You got me spot on for this one. I do believe that "FRC the organization," that small handful of people working in Manchester, exists primarily to provide affiliated teams with a robotics competition. However, I believe that "FRC the community of teams," exists to inspire society to recognize science and technology. I don't believe that "FRC the organization" can inspire anyone. I do believe that they can provide opportunities for teams to generate their own inspiration.

If FRC develops a poor competition structure, which I believe they just did. They diminish teams' opportunities to inspire, which I also believe they just did.
I also come here to gain insight from my peers. It can and usually is an insightful conversation as long as we all act as adults without finger pointing from either side of the table.

Dean, Woodie and Dave are not "all knowing". Way too much hero worship going on by both by students and mentors.

So, the mindset is that all teams should attend a championship at least once in their high school career. This has been said because it inspires kids. What is it about the venue of championship that is supposed to inspire kids? Appears that is the underlying question. And it appears that there are different camps with different view points on what inspires their kids. Some like the lure of competition on the field. Others want the knowledge and comradery gained.

Several have expressed that it is foolish to expect a team to attend and pay the high costs just to watch. Yet it appears that those same people think it's ok to attend from a lottery with an inferior robot (I truly do not understand this concept).

I've attempted to suggest that there are valid competitions going on both on and off the field. Many attend for those reasons. But people are often stating that winning or gaining the recognition of those awards will have less meaning without one true world winner. And some chastise this reasoning as blasphemy.

So, what does it all mean? I guess the "inspirational aspect" of attending means many things to many people. What does being inspired by attending mean to your students? Ask them! Don't quote what you think Dean or Woodie think. Your students are the customer. We all agree we do this all for them. How do we continue to inspire them?

As a side note. My kids always seem to see the value of the process of designing and building a robot. They like comparing their solutions with others around the world. Some of their most rewarding years occurred in the lean years when they received no recognition from the outside. Their Midwest values seem to come through and they always work harder and are hungrier after a loosing season on the field. They actually get inspired by their failures (believe it or not). They tell me they only want to go to championships when they are really deserving. I will continue to listen to them and try to give them the support and guidance they need.

Again, what is inspiring for your kids?
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Last edited by Sunshine : 19-04-2015 at 09:05.