The FRC Program and Its Effect On High School Students (x-post from r/FRC)

[TheMilkman01]

Sumeet, a Fellow FIRSTer on the FRC Reddit, conducted surveys and wrote a particularly powerful essay on the impact of FIRST. I asked Sumeet for his permission to post it here as it is quite insightful and has the potential for great discussion.

Here's the original post

Here's the essay

[itsjustjon]

While FRC has been a lot of fun and I've learned more skills in the program than I would have just attending normal high school, it doesn't leave any time for me to do things outside of itself.

One thing that I believe the essay didn't touch on that much is maintaining a social life outside of robotics.

Even besides schoolwork, the robotics program in general takes up an extensive amount of time for around five months out of the year, two of which being entirely devoted to building and the other three to competitions and robot maintenance.

This leaves zero time for homework and school, which also shuts out friends and a social life. I dunno about you guys, but yeah, general social activity is vital to high school, too.

Yes, robotics is fun and so is learning, but so is having a social life and friends outside of FIRST.

[jajabinx124]

Originally Posted by itsjustjon

While FRC has been a lot of fun and I've learned more skills in the program than I would have just attending normal high school, it doesn't leave any time for me to do things outside of itself.

One thing that I believe the essay didn't touch on that much is maintaining a social life outside of robotics.

Even besides schoolwork, the robotics program in general takes up an extensive amount of time for around five months out of the year, two of which being entirely devoted to building and the other three to competitions and robot maintenance.

This leaves zero time for homework and school, which also shuts out friends and a social life. I dunno about you guys, but yeah, general social activity is vital to high school, too.

Yes, robotics is fun and so is learning, but so is having a social life and friends outside of FIRST.

I agree with everything you've said, including the social one because while FIRST develops new and close friends, it really cuts off the rest of the world for a while or at least that's how I've seen it. But I still don't regret it because I've made great friends within FIRST- both students and mentors- which I won't hesitate to ask advice from in the future in life.

This isn't necessarily a huge problem if a student can time manage really really well, but sleep deprivation is another problem I faced. FIRST had a positive impact on my grades ever since I started the program but as I got more and more involved on the team, the positive impact it had on my grades came with a price, being sleep deprived. Do I regret it getting more and more involved and losing sleep? No, but again I look back and call myself crazy now but it was worth it. FIRST did give me the motivation to stay on track in school, even when I was sleep deprived and lacked energy.

But overall I agree with the essay and it is very insightful to how students see and feel about their involvement FIRST. Great essay Sumeet!

[serenagh]

I'll probably add to this in more depth later. But I wanted to compliment the author of the paper- well written and researched! Thanks for starting an interesting conversation.

[ThaddeusMaximus]

Ok so... Maybe it's the un/home-schooler (and farmer) is just shocked ; I disagree with improvement point number 2.

Those books are distracting from the real learnin' that's taking place in front of your very hands! Put them books away. Unless they've got something useful like maths or physics, then read them so you can work on your design work. You learn more and universities and employers and such much rather know you can think clearly than if you can find the root of a second degree polynomial. Just... focus on the task at hand.

Then again, the un/homeschooler in me was able to optimize the heck out of his daily routine (though mom would disagree). You guys spend 11+ hours a day in those meatlockers you call schools? Was that really the time I was wasting back in the public elementary education system? Jeez, no wonder I learned more in high school...

During junior/senior years of high school I spent like... 2 hours a day on average doing school-related activities. Maybe 3. Most was community college lecture.

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by ThaddeusMaximus

Ok so... Maybe it's the un/home-schooler (and farmer) is just shocked ; I disagree with improvement point number 2.

Those books are distracting from the real learnin' that's taking place in front of your very hands! Put them books away. Unless they've got something useful like maths or physics, then read them so you can work on your design work. You learn more and universities and employers and such much rather know you can think clearly than if you can find the root of a second degree polynomial. Just... focus on the task at hand.

Then again, the un/homeschooler in me was able to optimize the heck out of his daily routine (though mom would disagree). You guys spend 11+ hours a day in those meatlockers you call schools? Was that really the time I was wasting back in the public elementary education system? Jeez, no wonder I learned more in high school...

During junior/senior years of high school I spent like... 2 hours a day on average doing school-related activities. Maybe 3. Most was community college lecture.

was this posted unironically asking for a friend

[jajabinx124]

Originally Posted by ThaddeusMaximus

Ok so... Maybe it's the un/home-schooler (and farmer) is just shocked ; I disagree with improvement point number 2.

Those books are distracting from the real learnin' that's taking place in front of your very hands! Put them books away. Unless they've got something useful like maths or physics, then read them so you can work on your design work. You learn more and universities and employers and such much rather know you can think clearly than if you can find the root of a second degree polynomial. Just... focus on the task at hand.

Then again, the un/homeschooler in me was able to optimize the heck out of his daily routine (though mom would disagree). You guys spend 11+ hours a day in those meatlockers you call schools? Was that really the time I was wasting back in the public elementary education system? Jeez, no wonder I learned more in high school...

During junior/senior years of high school I spent like... 2 hours a day on average doing school-related activities. Maybe 3. Most was community college lecture.

While I disgaree with the second point as well and agree with your points, it isn't really contributing to solving it. Not all folks in FIRST are homeschooled, etc. and can optimize their time like you did your junior/senior year. Many students spend 8-11 hours a day in the meatlockers we call school, but because of that and because of other responsibilities they have they have trouble time managing and in order to keep up some lose sleep. It isn't impossible for students and I know I time managed okay myself (while losing sleep of course) but at least option 2 contributes to try to solve it.

I disagree with option 2 on a entirely different reason. I think we should focus on teaching kids how to time manage and stay motivated to finishing schoolwork rather than allocating them time during meetings which I think just is an awkward way to try to fix the issue. If we can motivate them to finish it outside of school and influence them in that direction I think it will have more of an impact than allocating time to force them to work on homework during meetings, although that option isn't bad either.. I know some teams that have effectively implemented it.

[Jay O'Donnell]

I never had a problem keeping up a social life and getting all of my homework done through a robotics season. Life is about time management, might as well learn it early.

[NShep98]

Those books are distracting from the real learnin' that's taking place in front of your very hands! Put them books away. Unless they've got something useful like maths or physics, then read them so you can work on your design work.

This point came up at an event I was at. Maybe it's my team dynamic, but sometimes there will be down time, for whatever reason. Especially for teams not based in a school, bringing extra work to do during these times is something to do besides sitting or wandering. It was also noted that parents wary of the time commitment required for FRC would feel a bit better if they felt like kids were still taking schoolwork/homework into consideration.

[ThaddeusMaximus]

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

was this posted unironically asking for a friend

Sober and serious.

Originally Posted by jajabinx124

I disagree with option 2 on a entirely different reason. I think we should focus on teaching kids how to time manage and stay motivated to finishing schoolwork rather than allocating them time during meetings which I think just is an awkward way to try to fix the issue. If we can motivate them to finish it outside of school and influence them in that direction I think it will have more of an impact than allocating time to force them to work on homework during meetings, although that option isn't bad either.. I know some teams that have effectively implemented it.

Right on. There's public schoolers on our team that make the commitment and get out of FIRST what they need to. Strategies like working ahead, using study groups, or my personal favorite (which I employed from time to time, the exact day varying): Set aside school for the week and make Sunday the school day.

Basically, they all came down to the idea that one should focus on the task at hand. We are bad multitaskers and it takes time for us to switch tasks. So stick to what you're currently doing.

Originally Posted by NShep98

This point came up at an event I was at. Maybe it's my team dynamic, but sometimes there will be down time, for whatever reason. Especially for teams not based in a school, bringing extra work to do during these times is something to do besides sitting or wandering. It was also noted that parents wary of the time commitment required for FRC would feel a bit better if they felt like kids were still taking schoolwork/homework into consideration.

Definitely team dynamic specific. There are cases of bottlenecks where getting ahead on schoolwork is appropriate. But still, see bolded point above.