Class Credit for FIRST

[tim-tim]

Coming from both ends of the spectrum - for credit and not for credit - here are my thoughts:

My high school team, 836, does not give credit for participation

The current team I mentor, 401, does give credit for participation

The difference, while not true in all cases, the students tend to show up for a grade when they are receiving credit. I feel that there is more passion and motivation in the team that does not receive credit for their participation.

836 has team members showing up 20-30 mins ahead of time, while 401 has a relatively empty shop for the first 15-20 mins. Again, this is not going to be the same across the board, but I just want to give some caution.

Both teams have a great relationship with the school system and the community.

On a side note - I receive college credit for mentoring the team from VT. The class is a technical elective "Engineering Leadership and Management." My grade comes from teaching the students the design process and not the actual performance. I am the only one in the class with FIRST experience.

Hope this helps

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Wildstang students made a presentation to the school board back in 1997 or 98 asking for credit. The board required them to come up with a curriculum and grading method that would work for teachers and mentors. The board agreed, and now students are required to register through their counselor to be on the team. Students are checked for attendance, activity while present, a requirement to include at least three hours per week averaged over each semester, a written research project each week called "The question of the week.", etc. All adults have input, and drive team and pit crew have a minimum grade requirement for both robotics and all other classes in order to be considered. Grade also plays into travel choice. Yes, drivers have sometimes thought they were above the grade requirement and found out the hard way when they were removed from the drive team.

[Marisa A.]

Team 375 has a STEM class in which any member of the team is allowed to join. The only stipulation is that they have ninth period free (as this is the only time the class takes place), and that they are in good standing in their mandatory classes (English, Math, Sciences... etc). While any member is allowed to take this class and it replaces other electives (Unless requested by the student), we try to keep out the mentality of "well I am only going to show up when I can receive credit" by making sure that everyone realizes that they will not be offered the class again if they do not put their full efforts into the team! We can receive up to 8 credits (one for each semester) for this class. We work on robotics projects, as well as other engineering projects our team works on, such as Lemelson-MIT Inventeams. For schools not willing to implement a class, or without the manpower (or other factors), before this class was implemented, our school offered National Honor Society credits for being a participant on our team. (We still have this option, and our head mentor has to certify that you contribute to the team) If your school has an honor society, or letters, see if you can get it established for your team! They may have the equivalent significance that National Honor Society has in our school.

[Nick Bouressa]

Thanks guys!

We already have a "problem" with people who join the team just because it looks good on a collage application. So I'm not quite sure how we are going to prevent that. And we aren't quite sure exactly how we would grade people just yet. We aim to get credit for the 2012-2013 year (my senor year), its to late for 2011-2012.

Keep it coming!

[tim-tim]

How 401 is graded is based heavily off their hours logged and their design books (log books). The idea is to teach the kids the design process through competing in FIRST. I do not know all of the details, but if you like I can see if I can my hands on a copy of the syllabus for the class.

[Nick Bouressa]

Originally Posted by tim-tim

I do not know all of the details, but if you like I can see if I can my hands on a copy of the syllabus for the class.

I think we could use that. Thanks!

[Techhexium]

Right now, Abo-Amir Shaeer is collaborating with UCOP (University of California Office of the President) to offer course credit for FRC in the a-g requirements list.

In other words, there may come a day when students in all FRC teams in California affiliated with schools will receive course credit for their participation in their robotics team.

[tim-tim]

Little did i know, the answer is on the team website...
http://team401.org/robotics%20syllabus.pdf is the syllabus

And here is the general website: http://team401.org/index.html
Feel free to look around and find more info

[yarden.saa]

In Israel the ministry of education give every member of FIRST (after 2 years in FIRST) the opportunity to do thesis about the robot and get 5 learnning points in the Bagrut Certificate(The Bagrut exams are the highschool graduation exams, In order to get Bagrut Certificate you need at least 21 learnning points, thanks for this opportunity I will have 40 learnning points in the Bagrut Certificate which is a lot)
That gives us a lot of opportunities in the university.

[Richard Wallace]

931 worked with St. Louis Public Schools to develop this curriculum. FRC and FTC are important parts of it.

[Rangel]

Team 842 has a class an hour before school every day that we get credit for.

[treffk]

Team 1802 has been trying to get a class set up for the past 3 years. This year our school board approved it. It is set up as a robotics class, if I remember correctly if you are in the class you have to be on the team( similar to a debate, forensics, and choral class) but can be on the team if you are not in the class. Currently we build offsite of the schools grounds but are looking into getting a building specifically for us to build in.

On a side note, I never got credit through the school for robotics, we lettered instead. I know 1108 does letters too.

[Nevets Amstier]

FRC229 is sponsored by Clarkson University, as a college student mentors have the option to sign up for MP414 (FIRST robotics) for 1, 2, or 3 credit hours based on how involved you are with the team. College students who take more credit are given travel priority over those who either do not sign up or those who take it for lesser credit.
At the end of each semester you are required to write a short paper (~1 page) that summarizes what you contributed to the team and what you learned in order to benchmark progress. Also during the semester you are required to keep an engineering notebook. These notebooks are submitted with your paper and sometimes kept in order to have on record what designs worked, which didn't, and why.

The biggest perk however is according to the Mech. Engineering cirriculum, if you take a semester of 3 credit robotics, you can use that instead of taking a professional elective (meaning an elective that is in the engineering, science, or mathematics department). Which can help lessen the work load during a semester.

Hope this helps!

[sanddrag]

In college I was able to receive general class credit, as well as senior project class credit for mentoring FIRST Robotics teams. On 696, our high-school students get credit through the Regional Occupational Program. I wish there was an FRC class during the school day, but so far there hasn't been.