Being Proactive About Paper Airplanes on Einstein

[Chi Meson]

Originally Posted by Chi Meson

Organize a paper airplane competition.

I recall seeing some fine gliders in 2014. I must admit it was fascinating. Having read the arguments, I will be instructing my team to leave all paper behind as we sit down for Einstein, but as other have said, If FIRST would make it clear that throwing airplanes is not acceptable, it would help a lot.
...
I just didn't think of the paper airplanes as being the worst aspect of that evening.
...

That was me two weeks ago. This year, put me firmly in the category of
STOP THE MADNESS!

I think, due to our seats this year (near front row of upper tier to the side), we saw and dealt with the barrage of garbage much more than in years past. The team in front of us paid almost no attention to the Einstein matches because of being obsessed with making terrible plane after terrible plane ripped from spiral bound notebooks and the FIRST Championship program. Most planes made did nothing but dive into the heads of those sitting in front of them. At one point a mentor from a team in front of them came up and angrily told them to stop it. This team only mocked him. When they left (before Einstein was even done) the floor was obscenely littered with FIRST program pages that were poorly ripped out.

I got hit several times.. No blood, but it gets less fun with each occurrence.

So I repeat my last suggestion: sanction it. Make it a coordinated contest, and for cryin' out loud, at the very least, learn how to make a good paper airplane BEFORE you arrive at Championships. 95% of what was thrown (low estimate) was garbage in every sense of the word.

[Chi Meson]

Originally Posted by MooreteP

As a volunteer who has worked on the floor of Einstein for the past 5 years....
...this year, there were significantly fewer paper airplanes.

I would like to thank this thread and its "crowdsourcing" ability that CD has shown as a major contributor to ameliorating this activity.

Wow, that was "fewer"? I think there might have been fewer well constructed planes, but I'll bet there were actually more total pieces of garbage that never made it closer than the 20th row.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Chi Meson

Wow, that was "fewer"? I think there might have been fewer well constructed planes, but I'll bet there were actually more total pieces of garbage that never made it closer than the 20th row.

I think there was at least twice as many planes flying last year.

[Monochron]

Originally Posted by EricH

As far as it happening every year, I can vouch that that's NOT the case. Seems to have started only after FIRST moved the CMP to St. Louis. It leaves a lot of extra trash for somebody to clean up (and I would hope that the throwers do try to clean some up...)

For what its worth, I remember the planes flying back in 2007 in Atlanta, but they were no where near as prevalent as they were last weekend.

[Sperkowsky]

After attending champs and being on the floor for Opening Ceremonies, all of Practice, and Qual matches along with Newton Elims I can now say the Paper airplanes have to chill. During field cleanup Friday morning I decided to count how many airplanes I threw out. (42 for anyone that cares). Some of these planes were not even planes I found cups with hollowed out fronts, pieces of paper folded in half, and some crappy oragami slightly resembling planes.

They are fun clearly. I was tempted to throw and few down but didn't. (I did throw one from the floor up but does that count But, they make us look like a bunch of compulsive immature kids.

I want paper airplanes to stay but not like this. There should be one sanctioned time where everyone can get it out of their system. It could look really cool and they can make safety goggles 'Mandatory'. Everyone writes their names and team # on their plane and the plane that reaches the farthest gets the member a prize. It would be a fun time killer. Definitely more fun then yet another speech talking about how inspired we all are and how great FIRST is.

[Chi Meson]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

I want paper airplanes to stay but not like this. There should be one sanctioned time where everyone can get it out of their system. It could look really cool and they can make safety goggles 'Mandatory'. Everyone writes their names and team # on their plane and the plane that reaches the farthest gets the member a prize. It would be a fun time killer. Definitely more fun then yet another speech talking about how inspired we all are and how great FIRST is.

I concur.

[roboruler]

Up in the VIP stand during Einstein and the closing ceremony, there were some 254 mentors putting their NASUH engineering skills to the test (not all 254 mentors are from NASA), the things they built were fine examples of what a paper aeroplane should be, they only threw one or two each and didn’t throw towards the field or during matches. Maybe NASA could pass on similar knowledge to all the students of FIRST?

254 build the best planes and the best robots

(This is not a mentor built stab)

[Ringo5tarr]

There are worse things plaguing FIRST out there to be frank.

[wilsonmw04]

Originally Posted by Ringo5tarr

There are worse things plaguing FIRST out there to be frank.

threadjacking imminent.

[IronicDeadBird]

Originally Posted by Ringo5tarr

There are worse things plaguing FIRST out there to be frank.

You expect to tackle bigger issues when we can't get people to be considerate of others?

[chapman1]

What I found distressing about this year's paper airplane madness is that most people above us seemed to make no attempt to actually create an object that flew well. Many of the objects that landed near - or on - us were crumpled pieces of paper that resembled what a kindergartner might create. Note: there were no kindergartners above us.

I can only assume that the appeal to such people was a) indulging in a sanctioned form of littering, b) in bothering those below them, or c) in creating a great mess that others will have to clean up. Not exactly what FIRST is all about, IMHO.

Some (5%?) of the paper planes that descended from above, however, had beautiful flight paths that gracefully wafted with the air conditioning currents all the way to the playing field. These were the creations of FIRST-caliber kids.

It might be beneficial to create a separate event in the Einstein sector while the Quali rounds are going on, for those kids who are so inclined... with the proviso that they all pitch in to pick up their collective litter each day, in a display of Gracious Professionalism rather than defacto sanctioned littering.

Perhaps a mini-championship for those who excel... and hence create an atmosphere that does not promote a littering problem but instead creates another intellectual and creative challenge...

[synth3tk]

Originally Posted by chapman1

It might be beneficial to create a separate event in the Einstein sector while the Quali rounds are going on, for those kids who are so inclined... with the proviso that they all pitch in to pick up their collective litter each day, in a display of Gracious Professionalism rather than defacto sanctioned littering.

That sounds great. But first you need to get the mentors on board, because I've seen some adults that unfortunately aren't very responsible when it comes to making sure their students act professionally and graciously and all that jazz. That's probably why we're here in the first place. Mentors should be telling students not to ball up paper and throw it or not to push an enitre roll of paper towels over the edge or not to launch a plane as hard as they can into the back of somebody's head.

Let's get some better adults to help out first.

[ctt956]

TL;DR all the replies. A team should build a robot that picks up the paper airplanes...no, two teams should build the one robot each, one for each Championship next year.

[Mr. Tatorscout]

Originally Posted by BrennanB

Pretty sure kids are intelligent enough to not have to throw garbage onto the field because they are bored. I mean REALLY? are you seriously suggesting that kids are physically incapable of not mass littering a the dome because of hormones!?!?!?
Just wow.

There was a young lady in front of me from Team 330 that had a bottle of water land on her head during champs this year. So, yes, it would appear that some idiots are incapable of not mass littering.

[dubiousSwain]

https://www.facebook.com/55324403808...type=2&theater

Relevant. Its not just FIRST.