Robotics Classes

[Element945]

First off, I believe there may already be a thread about this somewhere out there, or this information is tucked into another thread, but I couldn't find it and I need to know: Does anybody have a "Robotics Class"at their school? We are trying to start one at ours, but we are not sure what a curriculum might look like for such a class. Our Team's sponsor and connection to our school would like to get into contact with any teams/teachers that can help us format our own robotics class, so if you could possibly help us, please e-mail Mrs. Andrews at andrewc@ocps.k12.fl.us
Thanks in advance

[AdamT]

First off, this thread doesn't really belong in here, it would get more feedback in a non-moderated forum...

Second, our team is a class at the high schools. We pull from 3/4 different high schools, into an evening class. PM me for more info on it.

My advise would be to stay away from a "class" and get a club status or sports status....I don't know about the politics of your school system, but if it's anything like ours, it'll benefit you more to be a club or sport.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Wildstang has had a yearly program for many years. During the fall sessions, students are introduced to all aspects of the team with regular Monday night classes. We meet for general announcements at 5:30 and when that session is through we break into smaller groups. The groups are taught robot fundamentals such as electrical theory and how motors work, Ohm's Law and how it relates to voltage drop in wire. We spend some time on PWM and how the speed controllers work. Other classes teach mechanical background, torque, speed and mechanical advantage, gear ratios etc. Still others teach support fundamentals, animation, web design, graphics and communications. All of these fundamentals are then put to use when the students must participate in a mini competition in December. They are grouped into teams of 6-8, and are required to make a web page, team name (using "Wild" in the name) build a robot to meet game requirements. (This year we used Lego Mindstorms for the first time and are planning on following the FLL rules for next year since so many of our students came from and mentor FLL teams.) This class is for credit and attendance, participation and performance in assigned tasks are used for grade. When January rolls around, all students are then working on sub-teams performing tasks that they learned throughout the fall session. Then the participation and level of involvement not only determines grade but also travel teams. We have about 80 students this year but can only travel 35 to nationals, about 15 to Eastern Mich, and since the Midwest regional is right in the neighborhood, everyone gets to go.
I should add that this structure was something pursued by the students, working with the school board many years ago. The school board, thankfully, has been very supportive of their efforts and regularly attend events and the Midwest Regional.

[Brandon Martus]

(moved this to general, to get more answers in one area)

In the white papers, I think there are a few teams (including ours) who have submitted their curriculum. Here is a link to Chief Delphi's curriculum.

[Hailfire]

Yeah, next year our school will have a Robotics Class and a Robotics Team completely different from each other. Or so I've heard. It'd be kind of interesting if there was two Robotics Teams from one school. Hopefully that'll never happen.

[Duke 13370]

We have had a robotics class since well before our team joined FIRST. The two are almost entirely seperate things. There are about 10 kids in the class and 40 on the team, but only 3 are doing both.

[Jeff Waegelin]

We've been trying to start a robotics class for close to two years now, but we've never managed to get any real work done on it. Right now, the whole thing's being debated by the district's Tech/Vocational Ed. committee. We'll have to see if anything comes of this.

[srjjs]

Originally posted by Hailfire
Yeah, next year our school will have a Robotics Class and a Robotics Team completely different from each other. Or so I've heard. It'd be kind of interesting if there was two Robotics Teams from one school. Hopefully that'll never happen.

I believe one school in North California, most likely Bellarmine, has two teams. I remeber seeing both an "A" team and a "B" team from one school at the Cal robot games last fall, but don't remember what school it was or if they had two teams in FIRST.

[Jrmc]

we have a class, its last period of the day, and is officially titled
"Research I Honors" the purpose is for us to get to know Pro E and web design, we also plan things, and second semestor go out to work on the robot.
If you want a class DO NOT GO TO THE DISTRICT, they will drag their feet untill doomsday.....go to the principal with a sponsor that wants to teach the class, give him or her the details. Principals are the ones who control the school, and unless its against policy there is no reason that they should disprove the class.. it takes a while, but good luck