View Single Post
  #56   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 25-05-2010, 15:39
Katie_UPS's Avatar
Katie_UPS Katie_UPS is offline
Registered User
AKA: Katie Widen
FRC #1296
Team Role: Engineer
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Rookie Year: 2008
Location: Wisconsinite lost in Texas
Posts: 959
Katie_UPS has a reputation beyond reputeKatie_UPS has a reputation beyond reputeKatie_UPS has a reputation beyond reputeKatie_UPS has a reputation beyond reputeKatie_UPS has a reputation beyond reputeKatie_UPS has a reputation beyond reputeKatie_UPS has a reputation beyond reputeKatie_UPS has a reputation beyond reputeKatie_UPS has a reputation beyond reputeKatie_UPS has a reputation beyond reputeKatie_UPS has a reputation beyond repute
Re: How much does your school's general population care about your team?

Quote:
Originally Posted by J-Blondie View Post
At my school, Rufus King in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, our general student body doesn't know much about us. We (Team 1675) won the Midwest Regional in 2009 and we ended up getting a pep-rally for that. It was also a pep-rally for other things, amongst which was the chess team, so I think it was definitely the most nerdiest pep-rallies in our school's history.

Surprisingly, the other school that is affiliated with our team, Bradley Tech, does not have as much involvement or interest even though they are a technical school and many of their graduates go on to be engineers. I guess it just all depends on the school as well as the community and area that you live in. Since we are from a large city, we aren't as locally famous but we are trying to get FIRST out a lot more.
About half the kids from our (Janelle and I) school know we have a team. Of that, 75% don't know our name or number. The administration is pretty supportive at both schools. At the school that hosts the pep-rally, the teachers and administration are interested and supportive. At the technical school, the administration is very supportive (they have said they wanted to help as much as possible), and we have 50/50 teacher support.

Students at both school are under the misnomer that robotics is for "geeky" kids, which is one our biggest recruiting problems. Both of the schools are big schools though, over a thousand students each... its hard to get everyone to understand the procedure for a pep-rally, none the less that we have a robotics team.

Quote:
Originally Posted by xxjgdancexx View Post
They are given the opportunity but they do not take it. I wish they did care but we do not need people forced on the team because this would only slow down our progress as a team. We have slowly branched out over the years though to cover the three schools in the district. Next year we hope to have lots of new people do to our advertising for FIRST.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris is me View Post
What do you mean slow down your team? The poin of your robotics team isn't to build efficient and successful robots, it's to get these people involved. I you turn a kid away from inspiration because it'll take time from the team, I think you're missing the point a little. I don't mean to say welcome all the slackers everywhere and let them get away with doing nothing, but if you don't extend the olive branch you're not doing much to inspire people to pursue STEM.
Chris, I think they mean that they don't want a student that is forced on the team (by friends or whatever) that doesn't want to be there. That means they don't care about the team/robot. This means they are unmotivated. Students need some internal motivation to be helpful.
__________________
How To: Diversity and Inclusion in FIRST
1675->3928->1296
Reply With Quote