GPA Requirements and Penalties

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Eric,
Until this year we were considered a "ninth period" class. Students have to register to be part of the team and to be included in the class. Obviously that is needed to be included in grading. This year we have migrated to being a night school class, which opens more possibilities, takes admin out of the hands of a principal, and officially opens the program to home schooled students in the district. (Their parents pay taxes to the district afterall.) It changes the way teachers operate as they no longer are given any day time planning and it pays them through a different stream. We started the year with 74 students and will lose from 5-10 by the beginning of the build season. Some people will come on board thinking this is a social club and don't want to work as hard as we require for grades or participation. Only about half of those still on in April will actually get a chance to go to Champs.
This class started when several students approached the school board with a formal presentation to make this a class (ca 1998). They agreed if we had a class plan, grading rubriks and attendance. While this is one of the largest classes we have had (mostly we kept to around 60) we have almost 30 freshmen this year. During the fall we teach fundamentals in electrical, pneumatic, mechanical, software, animation, work on Woodie Flower's submission and plan and perform Chairman's events. In addition every student not on the software team, must be involved in an FTC or VEX team. We run both an FTC and a VEX tournament in November/December. Additionally, we will teach a safety course and every student must be checked out on power tools (drill press, band saw, hand drill, etc.) The curriculum changes each year to respond to student requests and needs.