FIRST as the guiding project for a class

[MDWay]

I'm a robotics educator who is having to make some changes to his program in the coming year.

Due to circumstances beyond my control, my robotics class has been moved out of the normal school day and will need to run after school.

Currently our team will be entering our third season and I am tossing around the idea of making FIRST the guiding class project and structuring my class around that.

Does anybody have experience with this sort of setup? What are some things that I should be aware of when doing this sort of thing?

Any input would be hugely helpful.

[sanddrag]

It's not a bad idea, and it's really something I'd like to do. But, it takes the right group of students, who are responsible with minimal supervision, and can be trusted with just about anything. I would never do it with a class of students that were just assigned to me at random. How many students are we talking about? Do your students seem to fit the profile for success here? Do they have prior experience? As a single instructor, it would be extremely difficult for you as one person to manage every aspect of an FRC team, especially in a classroom setting.

In general, departmentalize, departmentalize, departmentalize. Task, assign, assess, reflect, document, rinse and repeat.

[MDWay]

I have a group of grade 11 and 12s(currently 10s and 11s) that range in experience from having competed for two years, to ones who are brand new.

I will probably run the class as the technical team and then have the organizational(admin) team be a separate group.

Last year we had three teachers run the program, myself(the robotics teacher), one of the Business teachers and the welding instructor.

I may need a fourth this time around.

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by MDWay

Due to circumstances beyond my control, my robotics class has been moved out of the normal school day and will need to run after school.

Will it still be a class (that is, for credit toward graduation)? If not, it sounds like a great many FRC teams, including ours. We have found that having sessions of at least 2-1/2 hours helps greatly, even if you have fewer of them.

[MDWay]

It would be, at least partially, for graduation credit.