The FRC Program and Its Effect On High School Students (x-post from r/FRC)

[jajabinx124]

Originally Posted by itsjustjon

While FRC has been a lot of fun and I've learned more skills in the program than I would have just attending normal high school, it doesn't leave any time for me to do things outside of itself.

One thing that I believe the essay didn't touch on that much is maintaining a social life outside of robotics.

Even besides schoolwork, the robotics program in general takes up an extensive amount of time for around five months out of the year, two of which being entirely devoted to building and the other three to competitions and robot maintenance.

This leaves zero time for homework and school, which also shuts out friends and a social life. I dunno about you guys, but yeah, general social activity is vital to high school, too.

Yes, robotics is fun and so is learning, but so is having a social life and friends outside of FIRST.

I agree with everything you've said, including the social one because while FIRST develops new and close friends, it really cuts off the rest of the world for a while or at least that's how I've seen it. But I still don't regret it because I've made great friends within FIRST- both students and mentors- which I won't hesitate to ask advice from in the future in life.

This isn't necessarily a huge problem if a student can time manage really really well, but sleep deprivation is another problem I faced. FIRST had a positive impact on my grades ever since I started the program but as I got more and more involved on the team, the positive impact it had on my grades came with a price, being sleep deprived. Do I regret it getting more and more involved and losing sleep? No, but again I look back and call myself crazy now but it was worth it. FIRST did give me the motivation to stay on track in school, even when I was sleep deprived and lacked energy.

But overall I agree with the essay and it is very insightful to how students see and feel about their involvement FIRST. Great essay Sumeet!

[serenagh]

I'll probably add to this in more depth later. But I wanted to compliment the author of the paper- well written and researched! Thanks for starting an interesting conversation.