Freshman Positives

[steven114]

We actually do have a super freshmen - he's always there, always willing to help, very bright, handy with tools, has a good personality, and is fun to be around. The only problem with freshmen seems to be that the quality varies wildly - many aren't quite up to it but a few of em every year are just quality team members.

[Scott Ritchie]

I think you need to appreciate where you have come from and in our FIRST program the freshman do get some of the simple jobs. Don’t get me wrong I have some of the best freshmen that I have ever had and one of them was very vital to the build season. Still I want him taking out the trash, sweeping the floor, sorting nuts and bolts and getting teased a little for being a freshman. I have found in the past that if you give to much responsibility to a freshman and make an easy path for them they get very premadonnaish (sp?) and become very hard to work with as Jr. or Sr. There is a lot of learning at that takes place at the bottom of the food chain, a lot of good foundation learning. Freshmen make me think of the Dodo birds in the movie Ice Age. If they would watch the other more advanced animals they possibly could learn to survive but they think they have a plan and they really just have some watermelons.

[Andy Brockway]

We do not have special jobs for Freshmen. In fact we seperate our group in two, Veterans and Rookies. The only difference is that the Veterans are required to teach the Rookies. This year 12 of our 17 members were rookies. Half way through the season some of the 'rookies' were teaching other rookies. Talent and ability to follow instruction are traits that we encourage. Responsibility we require.

[Lord Nerdlinger]

we have zero freshman..

[tenfour]

Half of FIRST is work ethic. The other is brains. We have some members who can think forever, but get tired after 4 turns of a wrench. A lot of mindless sweat goes into a robot. We had a young guy last year who would do whatever needed to be done regardless of its glamour. Thats cool.

[-PauL-]

it all depends on how you look at this. Yes, most freshmen who join the team are slackers, and they don't know the level of commitment they are pledging when they join, but there are few who are elite, who are even better at what thay do than older people on the team that make fun of the younger members. I don't think that freshman should be used for the grunt work, and this has nothing to do with the fact that I am one, it's just common morals you learn in kindergarten.

[Salik Syed]

heehe.....lol alex.....i know i know...the jokes are kinda mean but they are funny..... i mean when you are a freshmen this is basically what happens, because freshmen dont really know much....but as we sat there filing filing filing....or hack sawing hacksawing hacksawing something....we were happy it was something new and exciting and since it requires so little brain activity while we did it we actually learned something... by watching the other people.
also freshmen can have some good ideas in the design phase...although sometimes there are a lot of things like 8 stage telescoping arms, etc...

btw metric crescent wrench

[Joe J.]

We came up with a few freshman ideas!

1. Tie one tool to each freshman and train them to answer to the tool name. Then tie them to a wall so they can't wander off.
2. Give them to other teams at compitions so they can cheer for those teams in exchange for spare parts.
3. Have them file stuff.
4. Train them in the ways of the team.

[MisterX]

I remember this one time sending a freshmen out to get headlight fluid and a tube of elbow grease :sigh : good times....

of course I also remember the time my team had me get a 4/16 wrench ( I spent half an hour until I realized it was a 1/4) and I am only gald that I can be part of keeping the tradition going!

[Lisa Rodriguez]

I love freshman. They are usually really willing to learn. Lots of times we use the phrasing "rookie" or "freshman" when they do something wrong i.e. "oops i forgot right was tight" *shakes head and say "freshman"

Most of our freshman are really great, one is the only one who knows entirely how to run the CNC machine and Mastercam (we LOVE him, he doesn't deburr very much) and willing to listen. But sometimes they don't know exactly what to do and stand there, so you have to take them in.

This is a little of topic, but two of our freshman on animation were a LOT mischivioius and deleted the almost finished animation (on purpose, they thought it didn't look good, LONG complicated story) and little discplinary action was taken, but we're working on that. So if you see our animation, it was done in like 2 days, not EVEN, its really really good for deleting it (even from the trash bin, so it was really hard recover) But they kinda alienate themselves......

anyway, i like MOST freshman

[Alekat]

Ok its been 5 or 6 months since i started this so lemme just say its turned way too philoshical. too lazy to spell check that one. but my point is lost from me so just keep doing what your doing

[Salik Syed]

tell them to get chain for the gears.....

[errickhorner]

Originally Posted by Alekat

Freshman, who needs em right? wrong! if you read enough forum pages your always going to fun into comments about know-it-all freshmen. But they're also good for other things as well. Here are the ones i can come up with off the top of my head:

The simple machines:
1.Shelf
2.support beam(warning: check the muscle on your freshman before applying too much weight)
3.Ramp(a little shaky but they get used to it)

The simple tasks:
1."fetch" (please be specific as to whether you meant drill bit or mill bit)
2."hold this for me"
3."get out of the way" (please be kind to our freshmen when using this one)

Please keep in mind this thread is all in clean fun, and try not to be rude to the freshmen(not sure if i set the best example). Keep in mind without Freshmen we couldn't have anyone else, whos gonna take over the robotics team!?
Feel free to post any quotes or incredible freshmen feats you have seen achieved! lol

Happy Robot Building!

I agree. have them do the annoying busy work.And knuckle grinder work too

[Arefin Bari]

After reading every single post here in this thread, i think each of them is trying to tell me is "Teach the Freshmans (rookies)." Us, seniors had a time when we were freshmans and i am thankful to those seniors who took a step forward and cared enough to teach me of what i am capable of now. Personally, i think its a whole cycle or a process. Veterans teach the rookies (like Andy Brockway said), It is very true. if we are not there to help them and show them what is FIRST about, we will lose leaderships. I understand that there are times when we make fun of freshman's, its just a everyday thing, but i am very sure when it comes to the learning process... All of us likes to get them into Robotics. As far as Freshman positives, there are only a few dedicated freshman every single team gets, when they are dedicated and shows up at all time, they learn, they knows what goes on. when I was a freshman, i knew the 2002 (my freshman year) Robot inside out, same with my sophomore and junior year. Now i am a senior, i mostly work on machining parts. at the same time, teach the rookies and make someone a machinist, that when i leave, there will be someone to replace me...

[Kyle Love]

I was a Freshman myself last year. I was the battery boy/trailer runner. During eliminations I would make sure that we had batteries ready to go. At Nationals I had to run all the way to the trailer (it was like 2 miles away) and get something that we didn't even need to get. But hey, someone had to do it. I say it should be a "right of passage". What do you think?

-Kyle