Quote:
Originally Posted by Otaku
In my eyes, there are very few limitations for people (these apply to everybody):
-You must know what you're doing.
-You must know what certain tools are used for/what tools you need (one of the freshmen asked me what a philips screwdriver was... I forcibly removed him from the shop. And yes, our team does training sessions to try and prevent this).
-You must keep a channel of communication open. (675 has had communication issues in past years, they were minimal this year, which is good)
Oh, and I'm a dude. Not that that should matter much.
|
I don't QUITE agree with this. Now, don't get me wrong, when I got into first I knew what a hammer was and what a wrench was for, but if someone asked me about gear ratios or speed in feet per second I would have looked at them like they were CRAZY! I don't think it's important to know WHAT you're doing, as long as you're willing to learn. AND, I don't think it matters if you know all the tools you are using, as long as you learn how to SAFELY use them.
As a rookie team in 2003, I was the ONLY girl. And, frankly, it didn't matter. What drew me into the program? It was the spirit, the energy and the excited faces on the students I had seen a few years back (1999). It wasn't about the ROBOT, or about whether I was male or female, it was about getting to compete in something that was just SO cool. We have trouble on our team recruiting and retaining girls. Yes, sometimes it's because of discrimination against steretotypes, but sometimes it's simply that the girls aren't as interested. This is stereotypical, but if you walked into a shop class, you'd see 9 times as many boys as you would girls.
Girls have been put on a pedastal by the media; to wear skirts and have painted nails. Not to get dirty and greasy and put together a functioning machine. Yes, we have girly girls in FIRST. Yes, we have girls who want nothing more than to rewire the pneumatic tubing match after match.
If you want more girls, exploit that fact! FIRST is for EVERYONE! Want to get more girls interested in engineering? Bring them into the program because of something ELSE they're interested in. We got a new student on the team this year that joined because she liked making posters. Now she's an influential member of our media committee, and I'm sure she knows a thing or two about robots too!