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Re: How much does your school's general population care about your team?
Our team is 2 schools, plus some kids from surrounding towns without their own teams. At the 2 schools our team is officially connected to (Suffield and Windsor Locks), we have about 30 and 10 members, respectively, off the top of my head. Our head mentor is a teacher at Windsor Locks, and that is where our shop is as well. We also have a trophy case there that holds all of our banners. At Suffield, we have another teacher mentor, and the display case outside his room holds our judges' awards and medals, with our 1999 championship banner in the gym. Also, our pre-ship scrimmage, the Suffield Shakedown, is held in Suffield's gymnasium.
The teachers and faculty at both schools know about our team, and one of the vice principles at Suffield often wears team shirts on Fridays. However, many of the students at both schools seem to look down upon and even make fun of the students in the robotics program. They don't really accept it as a sport, and they don't really understand the program either. Most obviously think it's similar to Battle Bots, and when they hear that it isn't, it just makes them think we're nerds playing with legos.
Even though a lot of students and teachers don't quite understand FRC, we still try to inform them about it. For example, at the beginning of the school year, we announce our meeting schedule over the morning announcements. During Freshmen orientation in February, we hold a demo for the 8th graders who are moving up to the high school. We often bring a robot and let the kids try it out, to see what FIRST is really like. Also, we have a morning announcements commercial for our scrimmage, where we encourage students and teachers to come see what we have been doing for the 6 week build season.
Regardless of all of the above, I (regretfully) have to admit, that our team really only gets a lot of attention when we win. When the school gets news that a team, any team, won something, they become interested in them, at least for a little while. After we won in Washington DC this season, we came back to an excited faculty and student body, and many congratulations. Students asked us about the team, rather than putting us down. However, this was all reversed when we didn't win in Connecticut. We were almost expected by the students to win a 2nd regional, just because we had already won a first. And just that in itself is disheartening, because that's not what FIRST is about.
So, overall, I would say that a lot of the student body at our schools really don't care much about us. However, I will say that the schools are supportive of what we do, and they are by no means working against us. I think that a lot of people just judge us, because they don't really know what we're all about.
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FRC 176 - Aces High - 09-12 - Student
FRC 229 - Division By Zero - 13-14 - "Mentor"
FRC 2170 - Titanium Tomahawks - 17-Now - Mentor
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