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#1
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Re: Managing Grades and Responsibilities While On A FIRST Team
For WildStang students, robots are dead last on the priority list. Family, school, church and what ever is needed at home comes first. Students need to maintain a minimum grade standard to be on the team including a grade for the robotics class. There is a higher standard for pit crew and drive team. And of course, grades are also part of the consideration for travel. Yes we have had drivers and pit crew in the past try to push the envelope and they lost. Grades fell and they were taken off the drive team or pit crew until things improved.
Mentors are in contact with the teachers and when grades start to fall, we will send students home to study until grades rise. We are an all year program and class that is assigned grades that affect GPA. The school district requires students to register for the class and attendance and participation are tracked for grade purposes. |
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#2
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Re: Managing Grades and Responsibilities While On A FIRST Team
We tell our kids that school and work comes first. They can't travel if they dont meet grade requirements (I think its a C- or better in everything) and while school lets out at 3, we don't start meetings until 6 - this means a lot of our kids just stay after school. Some have stuff to do (sports, or other meetings) and some want to do homework.
Last year we ran into the problem where we'd open the room right after school for kids who wanted to do homework and more kids would come in and distract them, which would lead to fooling around time. Now we're not really opening the room until about an hour or so before the meeting, but we're running into a problem where the library in our school only stays open for an hour after school, and the senior cafe (the other place that they can hang after school if they don't have an activity to be at) has all its tables up after school. I think we're going to talk to our liaison at the school and open the room at 4pm, with the strict rule that if you come at 4pm, its essentially study hall and its going to be quiet so people can get their homework done. We want to encourage the kids to get their work done before robotics rather than wait until after they get home. |
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#3
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Re: Managing Grades and Responsibilities While On A FIRST Team
I'll echo what Mark said - and I think we'll plan to make these guidelines even clearer this year.
I'll speak from my own experience: Robotics taught me good time management. My entire senior year was my best academic year ever, with straight A's in all classes including numerous APs, all while being president of our team which was an incredibly demanding job both in and out of build season. I think when you have more to do you're forced to learn proper time management, so just like some studies show athletes having better grades during the season, I think the same could be observed of students in robotics (although I lack data other than my own personal observations to back that up). |
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#4
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Re: Managing Grades and Responsibilities While On A FIRST Team
Going to bump this thread again as we head into the 2014 season. It's worth the read for anyone worried about keeping their grades up.
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#5
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Re: Managing Grades and Responsibilities While On A FIRST Team
Quote:
I am a college freshman this year and for me maintaining a schedule during build season was darn near impossible. I was on our FIRST team at school but I was also on our varsity rowing team (something that I now do at the division 1 level, I took that very seriously too). There would be days when our team meeting didn't technically start until 5:30 but I would have practice from right after school until then so I would be occupied at school until 8:30 at night. Our team only met twice during the week (Tuesdays and Thursdays) so I learned very quickly that Monday, Wednesday and Friday would have to be my extra homework days. Until the end of build season when we were struggling to finish the robot I would use MWF to finish and get slightly ahead on schoolwork. I would try not to leave big projects or papers until a Tuesday or Thursday night because I knew I wouldn't be home in time to finish it. My parents were very helpful too and let me slack on chores around the house during build season. Responsibilities like washing dishes, laundry, or keeping my room neat could be put off for a little while because I was so busy with school and robotics. Overall, there were some nights when sleep was minimal but I learned which nights I could count on for homework and a little extra sleep and I could get through pretty well. I never had to rely on energy drinks or coffee to get me through the day. |
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