Large group presentations

[Rich Kressly]

Consider us contacted!

The Rural Support Network of contacts can be found here:
http://www.cybersonics.org/cybersonics/rural/join.asp

Also, feel free to dig around the rest of the rural support site as well as our main site at www.cybersonics.org for ideas, downloads, etc.

As far as video goes:
The one-hour Discovery Science piece is awesome, but if you need something short and captivating, download the 2004 kickoff video here:
http://www.usfirst.org/robotics/2004/kickoffvideo.htm
It's short, high energy, and gets to the heart of things.

Let us know how we might assist in other ways. Good luck!

[Jessica Boucher]

Back in the day (!) in 98, our faculy advisor (a TechEd teacher) recruited by having an assembly and then going to random classrooms to talk to the students for 5 minutes. I'll say it again, I was pulled out of a history class...so just get out there and keep recruiting!

[ngreen]

I would say instead of a assembly set up a booth during lunch in which you run one or two of the exciting videos. Make up application sheets and gives them to people who are interested. Give some general requirements like 2 to 3 teacher's recommendations and a couple short answers. Nothings that will scare them away to much but you will want to have members of your teams dedicated. You might mention the dedication it's going to take (6 weeks). But also throw in the trip to regionals for good measure.

And definitely get the school's teachers and administrator's on boards. Not just math and science too. One of the english teacher's helps us revise our chairman's award entry. And shop teachers are good too. You always could use a good student welder.

I don't have any short videos. Our i-movie we showed in our pit last year was nearly 30 minutes long.

Oh yeah, for our first year we had two students that kind of started it (me and another) we ended up going off teacher reccomendations and then asking the students reccomended. We gave them like a day to make up their mind. We had to have names to put on the NASA grant application the next day so the process was kind of hurried. And not completely sure. "Do you want to be on a robotics team if NASA gives us 10,000?" I don't know what we would have done without that grant, It worked out though.

Good luck.

[Amber H.]

Originally Posted by Rich Kressly

As far as video goes:
The one-hour Discovery Science piece is awesome, but if you need something short and captivating, download the 2004 kickoff video here:
http://www.usfirst.org/robotics/2004/kickoffvideo.htm
It's short, high energy, and gets to the heart of things.

Let us know how we might assist in other ways. Good luck!

I have tried repeatedly over the last month to download the 2004 kickoff video with no sucess. I keep getting a message that the file is unavailble.
Any suggestions?

[Rich Kressly]

Originally Posted by Amber H.

I have tried repeatedly over the last month to download the 2004 kickoff video with no sucess. I keep getting a message that the file is unavailble.
Any suggestions?

Amber, I just downloaded it again without problems in about two minutes over my cable modem.
http://www.usfirst.org/robotics/2004/kickoffvideo.htm

right click (or control-click if you have a Mac) and save target as

[Tom Bottiglieri]

you can find the 2003 Science Channel FIRST documentary here
http://www.team696.org/resources.html
it is a 500 mb download

I recomend setting up shop in lunches and at freshman course fairs. Use your teams propaganda there. Show people the bot. Tell them they will be able to drive the bot if they come to a meeting on such and such a day. Try to get kids to show its not just for nerds, and there are many things to do with FIRST. Then, on that meeting day, show them that video or show them anything else. You could show videos from matches from last year. If you dont have any you can go to http://www.team195.com/media.html and go to the video gallery, some of my teams vids are there..

But what i would say is the best thing to do is try to emphasise that FIRST is for everyone, and it just as fun as a sport. Tell them that builiding the robot only takes up 6 weeks a year. Lots of kids in high school think that FIRST is only for geeks and nerds, and have no reason to join. Give them a reason.

[Amber H.]

Originally Posted by Rich Kressly

Amber, I just downloaded it again without problems in about two minutes over my cable modem.
http://www.usfirst.org/robotics/2004/kickoffvideo.htm

right click (or control-click if you have a Mac) and save target as

Yee Haw! It worked!

So simple and obvious.....Sometimes I wonder if that old addage in the music world of, Soprano = Airhead is true.....Hmmmm....

Thanks Rich!