Mentors' Advice Needed for Automotive Teacher Considering FRC

[Mr V]

There is certainly a lot of synergy between an auto shop program and FRC. The modern automobile is far more advanced than any of the robots we build in FIRST yet the use many similar concepts and technology in their operation. As a former professional automotive technician I could draw many parallels in operation of a modern automobile and a FRC robot. As Jason noted a lot of the work of an automotive technician involves diagnosing computer systems which requires extensive knowledge of programming strategy to quickly diagnose a problem successfully. A lot of the mechanical skills and concepts also have similar parallels. He can certainly transfer a lot of skills that he currently teaches. Assembly techniques, wiring, trouble shooting, and ensuring that the robot is designed for quick repairs between matches something very important in the district system.

In our state we have at least one program ran by the auto shop teacher and a number of others that at least use some of the auto shop facilities from using some of the metal working tools or at least the large open space for testing.

Send me an PM with you and your friend's email and I'll forward them and your story along to the auto shop teacher in our area that runs an FRC program and see if he is willing to send him an email sharing his experiences.

It is not too late to start a team for this season. If nothing else you certainly should invite him to some of your meetings throughout the season and invite him to a competition. We are working on having more VIP tours at the district events this season with the focus on potential new teams, volunteers and mentors instead of just politicians and large donors.

[waialua359]

Our main shop is a former automotive program that went under due to low enrollment. For the 1st 8 years of our program, we shared our program construction area with the metal/autoshop instructor. We now have the shop to ourselves.
Integrating CTE (metals/auto) with Robotics is a great fit, and students in our program can earn CTE credits towards an honors designation diploma now in either Engineering or Design Technology with a Capstone course their senior year.

If automotive is a dying program in your school, FRC is the perfect candidate for the teacher and his facilities.

[MrBasse]

Honestly, having taught automotive and having coached an FRC team I can tell you they actually don't line up all that well. Really, robotics has a lot to do with production of cars, not their maintenance. In Michigan, Vocational courses are required to align with a competition component. That can either be SkillsUSA, or MITES (Michigan Industrial Technology Education Association). They don't even consider an Electric car program to be appropriate. To have it be aligned to content it actually has to align to content. When is the last time you tuned the fuel injection system on your FRC robot? Changed the oil? Adjusted the hydraulic brakes? While I do have dreams of a small block v8 robot, I doubt I'll see it in competition anytime soon.

I'm not saying he couldn't do it as a great program for his students, but if he wants it to align to his curriculum I fear he will be left wanting. FIRST is a powerful tool for my students, but I still have to participate in another competition for my Drafting program. It also isn't accepted for a local machining class. There are a lot of things that can be linked, but it all depends on what the funding requires.

Will it benefit the program, probably. Is it a perfect fit, no. Is it better than a traditional auto repair competition, perhaps. But the most important one to me, will it teach kids more about automotive technology? I'd have to say not without a lot of work on his end.