Girls in FIRST: A Sociological Study

[A. Leese]

For my sociology term paper I decided to focus on girls on FIRST teams as to wether they are encouraged or discouraged to use technology on their team and how comfortable they are using this technology.

Below is a link to a survey. If you are a girl on a FIRST team or used to be on a FIRST team (students or former students only, please), please take a moment to fill it out. The results of the survey will be used by me and me alone to write my paper. I may be nice and post it when I'm done.

Thanks all! Sorry, guys, but you may not fill it out (or you may but I won't keep the results).

BTW..if anyone feels ambitious and wants to give the link to other girls you know on other FIRST team's, feel free to do so.

http://team180.tripod.com/survey.html

(sorry to all RCU members who get to hear about this twice)

Thanks again,
Angela Hall

[Jnadke]

Wow, that survey is a grammatical nightmare. Heh, just giving you a hard time.

I am a guy, but girls are encouraged on our team for the most part, but it's so darn difficult to get'em to join. Our recruitment for the team in the past has come from good friends and family members.

Some of the most valuable members on our team are girls.

BTW... some of the girls on our team did chairman's award... might wanna put that on there... and marketing too.

[asher]

girls are soooo much better than boys our profs always say, "if you want it done right you better give it to ashley" (and im the only girl on the team)

[Abi]

BTW... some of the girls on our team did chairman's award... might wanna put that on there... and marketing too.

I think the idea of the survey is to determine weather or not girls are encouraged to use technology on the team in the sense of helping build the robot. Marketing and Chairman's award are traditionally female roles. Although those are important roles, girls should be able to be supported and feel comfortable in any area of the team they wish to enter.

[Harrison]

Originally posted by asher
girls are soooo much better than boys our profs always say, "if you want it done right you better give it to ashley" (and im the only girl on the team)

hmmmmmm...How old is this Prof? Is he married?...the usual questions...lol...jk

and littlefish...How about I fill out the survey as if I were a girl? lol

[Ian W.]

we had three girls on our team, two strictly marketing, and one girl who kinda drifted over into the technical side. she built a lot of the frame, then we took it apart (not her fault though), and she also knew some things about the robot. next year i'm hoping for more girls, but it's kinda hard. we were thinking about changing the club to 'Fashion Mechanics' i think....

[Jnadke]

Originally posted by Abi



I think the idea of the survey is to determine weather or not girls are encouraged to use technology on the team in the sense of helping build the robot. Marketing and Chairman's award are traditionally female roles. Although those are important roles, girls should be able to be supported and feel comfortable in any area of the team they wish to enter.

Heh... yeah, that's right....

Well anyways... of 7 girls on our team, 4 of them are technically oriented...
(well, maybe 3 and a half *coughalliecough*).
just kidding, of course...

[Melancholy]

i know quite a lot about electronics and programming, but i didnt work on as much of the robot as some of the guys did. i helped to design one of the claws and i cut out the wheel frames, but for the most part i did odd jobs that wouldnt have been done at all had i not been there. i calculated a lot of stuff that no one else felt like thinking about, i assembled the crate, i made buttons, i kept our freshman away from the robot, and i screwed in parts of the claw plate that no one else could get to because i have freakishly little hands. my major jobs were really scouting and strategy. even though im a senior, i'm coming back to my team next year to help with the scouting, because no male can come close to matching my mad organization skillz, yo... they're also just too lazy to even try

[Stephanie]

hm, i think i was the only female in the core of about five people who *really* knew the robot. sometimes a few of the guys would get all high and mighty on me, but i'd just say to them "stop it! now, teach me how to do this, i want to learn" it worked really well. most of the time they were really patient, and would explain theories to me while chatting online. they were very encouraging to me, and i learned *sooo* much. but, you've already heard me say that countless times

[A. Leese]

just so 'ya know..please try to keep comments to the survey..I have to turn in data that I collected from the survey and form the survey only..sry..but..yea..I will be posted my paper, most likely on my site in a few weeks when I get it done. I need at least 100 girls to fill out the survey in order for it to be valid so please encourage the girls on your team to fill it out. Thanks so so much!!

PS
My father encouraged me to send my study to FIRST? Any ideas or whether I should? I'm thinking not...b/c..well..some random high school kid doing some study for some college intro to soc class isn't that scientific but oh well..

[Stephanie]

i think your dad has a great idea! there is a powerpt slideshow on the FIRST website, and they include info that i think team buzz, don't quote me on that, sent to them. it would be great if you did that!

[asher]

In regards to our prof that i spoke of, *HE* is like a 5 year old in a 60 some years old mans body, (he only writes with crayola crayons, enough said) and yes he is also married, his wife got him a new set of legos for his birthday, and then i got to play with them he is the greatist robotics leader type person ever, or at least i think so.

Ashley

[Firewolf]

aah i was gonna pass the site on to a friend, its not working!

[PsychoPhil]

Originally posted by Melancholy
even though im a senior, i'm coming back to my team next year to help with the scouting, because no male can come close to matching my mad organization skillz, yo... they're also just too lazy to even try

Yeah!

I'm a guy and I was our most dedicated scout...
It actualy worked out (the scouting i mean)
Well, I got some help from one of the two girls on our team.
And that I did the scouting was only because I was the one ending up ding all the stuff that noone else wanted to do and I was all over the place the whole time anyways...

So long, Phil

[A. Leese]

I really need some more people to fill the survey out..only like 62 responces so far..i need 100 by Tuesday..please pass this on to people..thanks!!

yes, the whole paper will be online, though it's going to be junk b/c i'm going to do most of it in two days..