School Issues

[orelinde]

First I am glad that you have a place for people to come to talk about issues they are having at the school level. My son's highschool is giving robotics a try for the first time this year and they have already run into some roadblocks. Some seem to be insurmountable. They found a teacher to support them after school and on Saturdays which I thank that teacher for his willingness and support. However the teacher feels that because he is the adult that he is in control of how the robot is designed and produced. This includes things like shape, electronics, and designs.

The one day that the kids with the FIRST mentor had to themselves they got more accomplished then the whole prior two weeks and it was the KIDS that did the design and the work. Now the teacher did not like the kids robot and wants his design put back. The FIRST coach told the kids that this is their robot they need to stand up for it. The problem is the teacher feels and has stated that "FIRST people say a whole bunch of stuff and you need to filter out what is useful and what is not" now that bothered me greatly for these kids to be told this.

Secondly the kids received a Inventor 10 software for use. My son was going to be using that to set up and design the robot but the kids were told they can not use it because the computers can not handle it and there is no money to do upgrades. We took our computer in (which can handle it) and we were told no they would not install it on a home computer because it would not be able still not be able to be opened at school where they needed it.

As Rookies my son was trying to go after several awards including the Autodesk Award and he was told by the same teacher that this team is not aiming to win any of the major awards that this is just to try it out to see how it works. Several kids who had joined the team dropped out at that point becuase they were already quite discouraged.

I have adviced my son to talk to FIRST mentor/coach which he has done. I am still seeing a problem with the teachers control of the robot group. However the problem ends with if we do not go with the teachers idea the teacher will drop us and we will have no place to work. How do we go about resolving this issue?

I do realize that an option would be to become independant however at this time that is not an option that can be considered.