Bill's Blog July 27, 2011

[Akash Rastogi]

http://frcdirector.blogspot.com/2011...rvey-says.html

"The majority of responding students indicated they were actively involved in deciding team strategy 89.9%, robot design 86.3%, robot build 86.7%, and fund raising 81.9%. (Community service came in at 70.4%.)"

What exactly does the definition of "actively involved" entail? I'm a little curious.

[GaryVoshol]

Maybe it means the people motivated to answer the survey are also motivated to participate more on the team?

[Rich Kressly]

I find it exceedingly interesting that community service comes in at 10%+ lower than the other categories.

Oh...and like Gary, I'm guessing that anyone answering the questions is likely to be more involved and also that "actively involved" is someone up to the respondents interpretation.

I take all of these surveys with a grain of salt, as the number of respondents is rather low compared to actual participants.

[sgreco]

I'm not really saying this in response to anything, but given that these numbers are from a voluntary response survey, they mean very little to me. There are more than likely multiple confounding variables between those who choose to respond and the responses they choose to give.

[Rich Kressly]

"On a separate note, I mentioned last Friday that Saturday, August 14th 7-8pm ET ABC will be airing a made for TV special about the FIRST Championship. Don't be surprised if the FIRST website has a temporary new landing page soon (like the landing page that appeared just before will.i.am's performance at the Super Bowl)."

Tow thoughts come to mind here:
1.woooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
2. I'm gonna need another barf bag for that landing page, aren't I?

PLEASE, FIRST ... while creating mainstream attention don't degrade the look and feel of who/what you are REALLY supposed to be representing ... PLEASE . Do we REALLY want to teach our students that the right thing to do is to superficially change our appearance based on who one might attract? (insert LONG rant from a career educator here)

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

What exactly does the definitely of "actively involved" entail? I'm a little curious.

They showed up at the meeting and got actively involved in consuming copious amounts of pizza and Dew while listening to the powers that be debate what direction the robot should go that year.

[sgreco]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

They showed up at the meeting and got actively involved in consuming copious amounts of pizza and Dew while listening to the powers that be debate what direction the robot should go that year.

Let's not lose sight of the point of this program. FIRST is meant to inspire. If kids feel involved by their own standards, that's a solid step in the direction of inspiration. All this survey did was ask if they felt involved, and it seems that most students do. Being inspired has nothing to do with standards of involvement set by people on these forums.

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by sgreco

Let's not lose sight of the point of this program. FIRST is meant to inspire. If kids feel involved by their own standards, that's a solid step in the direction of inspiration. All this survey did was ask if they felt involved, and it seems that most students do. Being inspired has nothing to do with standards of involvement set by people on these forums.

I often think of 2 Seniors on our team that joined so it would look good on their college applications. We compete in BEST in the fall and made it to what was then, state - so they had 2 great awesome competitions under their belt before we got to the FRC season. On our lunch break at state, one of the Seniors was kicking a can through the grass and I could see that he was grumpy. We were doing well/having a great time so I caught up with him to see what was going on. Quite simply, the can that he was kicking was himself. He was realizing the value of being a part of the robotics team and how it was inspiring him in ways that he never realized would happen. It wasn't just the robot - it was the sense of being a part of something important. It was also the first time that he felt that he really was a member of a team and it blew him away. He also said that the other Senior had come onto the team with the same selfish shallow attitude and was just as affected and overwhelmed by the experience as he was.

This is only one story of many that I have that starts with something as simple as a slice of pizza or a college recommendation and develops into something more valuable. The students who reply to the surveys know what inspires them. And - we may never know it or - find out years later. I do understand that some students just come for the fun and the food but, oftentimes, it becomes food for thought and surprises even them.
--
To answer Akash's question, I would say they felt they were engaged in the process in some capacity.

Jane

[Chris is me]

If people say they were engaged, they obviously felt like they were engaged, which I'd say is all that actually matters.

[Siri]

Originally Posted by sgreco

All this survey did was ask if they felt involved, and it seems that most students do.

I'd hesitate on that point. Most students who filled out this survey felt involved. I'm glad .899*sample students did so, but does anyone know the exact methodology the survey employed? Without knowing their sampling procedures, I'd be reluctant to extrapolate. The ones I used to do as a student were basically only filled out by leaders. The "you're involved if you think you are" standard itself does seem pretty reasonable in this case, though.

[sgreco]

Originally Posted by Siri

I'd hesitate on that point. Most students who filled out this survey felt involved. I'm glad .899*sample students did so, but does anyone know the exact methodology the survey employed? Without knowing their sampling procedures, I'd be reluctant to extrapolate. The ones I used to do as a student were basically only filled out by leaders. The "you're involved if you think you are" standard itself does seem pretty reasonable in this case, though.

I agree (See my first post), but in my second post my point was not about the numbers in the survey, but rather about common misinterpretations of the goals of FIRST.

Originally Posted by sgreco

I'm not really saying this in response to anything, but given that these numbers are from a voluntary response survey, they mean very little to me.

[IKE]

Originally Posted by Rich Kressly

PLEASE, FIRST ... while creating mainstream attention don't degrade the look and feel of who/what you are REALLY supposed to be representing ... PLEASE . Do we REALLY want to teach our students that the right thing to do is to superficially change our appearance based on who one might attract? (insert LONG rant from a career educator here)

I always wear a suit when I go to an interview (either side of the table). This would be temproarily creating a superficial change in order to impress a possible employee/employer as I have yet to work a job that REQUIRED a tie much less a suit every day.

That being said, I agree with Rich to not degrade an already difficult to navigate website. I really appreciate the heads up this time as last time the surprise (during build season if I remember right) was not appreciated.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by sgreco

Let's not lose sight of the point of this program. FIRST is meant to inspire. If kids feel involved by their own standards, that's a solid step in the direction of inspiration. All this survey did was ask if they felt involved, and it seems that most students do. Being inspired has nothing to do with standards of involvement set by people on these forums.

I actually want to know what they mean by actively involved because looking at the numbers, only about 70% said they were involved in community service, I don't really know if I like that number. I also would have liked to see a specific metric for engagement, but that's just me. I want to know what they felt engaged and involved in, and what they didn't feel this way about. It would help the mentors of all teams gauge how they run their teams.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by sgreco

Let's not lose sight of the point of this program. FIRST is meant to inspire. If kids feel involved by their own standards, that's a solid step in the direction of inspiration. All this survey did was ask if they felt involved, and it seems that most students do. Being inspired has nothing to do with standards of involvement set by people on these forums.

I'll take a dozen students who actually take a vested interest in the design, construction and success of their creation over 30 kids who could care less if the robot works or not so long as they get to miss a few days of school any day.

[Ian Curtis]

Originally Posted by IKE

I always wear a suit when I go to an interview (either side of the table). This would be temproarily creating a superficial change in order to impress a possible employee/employer as I have yet to work a job that REQUIRED a tie much less a suit every day.

That being said, I agree with Rich to not degrade an already difficult to navigate website. I really appreciate the heads up this time as last time the surprise (during build season if I remember right) was not appreciated.

To carry that analogy a little farther, would you go to a job interview in swim trunks and flip flops? Food for thought...