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Unread 03-10-2008, 20:00
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dtengineering dtengineering is offline
Teaching Teachers to Teach Tech
AKA: Jason Brett
no team (British Columbia FRC teams)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Rookie Year: 2004
Location: Vancouver, BC
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Re: 2009 New Zealand Regional Cancelled

Quote:
Originally Posted by BrentJ View Post
Do you have on your teams, students who have basic metal working skills such as turning metal on a lathe, milling machine operation etc. I am not thinking about the whole team but maybe a couple of people on the build team or do you tend to use mentors or outside companies?


Brent
While there are teams that do amazing things with a hacksaw and a hand drill, and other teams that have mentors and sponsors quite actively involved in the production of the robot, most Canadian public high schools have some form of metal working or wood working shop with technically trained teachers and elective courses that teach students who are interested how to use machine and power tools.

The situation isn't entirely different in the USA, I believe, but perhaps varies a bit more. Our team, for instance has access to several machine lathes, two mills, TIG MIG Gas and Stick welders, sheet metal tools, and (not that we've used it for FRC yet) a forge and small foundry in the metal shop, and a full wood shop, complete with CNC router. We actually design many of our robot parts out of wood, particularly baltic birch plywood, with good success. We have also done fibreglass layup in the Engineering shop, and have built our own custom circuit boards in the electronics shop.

Other teams have more, many have much, much less. It doesn't so much seem to be what you have in your shop, but how you use it that makes the difference.

Jason

P.S. Oddly, we complain that our machine tools are so old that they are still in imperial units... doesn't hurt so much, though, when you're taking part in an American-based competition!