Question: Team practices to promote/support academics

[tim_reiher]

We have something of a policy on my team, that if students have an important test, or project due the day after a certain build session, the students are allowed to either leave early or miss one day of build, with prior notice. This flexibility helps many of our students, I believe, and doesn't tend to result in much abuse. Our schools run on block schedules, also, so many of us on the team have study halls at least twice or three times in a given week. Much of the time, we can study or finish work both before build sessions, and during school. For my school, at least, build season falls between the end of midterms and the beginning of many final projects and AP tests. It is, luckily, something of a schoolwork lull. It's still tough, but we manage.

When it comes to physics, though, there is always help available from the three physics teachers on our team. They are usually willing to help those of us in their classes, with any problems we may have. Them, and a chemistry teacher, really help many of us keep up academically, and focus more on building robots.

[ttldomination]

Generally,

We feel that is the students' responsibilities to keep up with their grades and academics. If a student cannot attend a meeting due to academic commitment, it is fine.

If a student in question has below a "C" in any of their classes, they are not allowed to attend meeting until that grade is brought up. That is not only a club rule, but a school rule.

[Akash Rastogi]

Our mentor is also a teacher at the high school, se he makes sure that every student and parent in MORT knows that schoolwork is always the first priority. We don't congratulate for academic excellence or anything; however, we will start offering a $500 scholarship for next year though. That is quite enough incentive for grades to improve/be maintained.

[SlaminSwimster]

On our team it seemed the people who just accepted the fact that it was going to be hard to do robotics and schoolwork, but buckled down and did it, did okay. It was the people who didn't manage their time that got caught with the slipping grades. I juggled school, varsity basketball, and robotics. So it can be done. It just takes a lot of sacrifice

[Koko Ed]

We have a star chart used to measure students progress during the build season from meeting attendance to grade. But we don't just measure thier grades but they cannot have negative comments on their report card such as "talks to much in class" or "doesn't turn in assignments".

[JaneYoung]

It can be quite a steep and sudden descent into a robotics season for new members. Students and parents may need to have an adjustment period regarding the student's study time at home the first season and maybe re-assess the participation and demands before the 2nd season begins. If the information is provided up front along with what the expectations are, such as the examples given thus far, that is very beneficial to the members. They know what is expected of them and can adjust accordingly.

Our team has been working on developing a study group of sorts. As we implement it and work with it this season, I'll let anyone who is interested know how it goes. We've also been discussing that there are informal groups that form in LASA, helping each other out in different subjects. One of our Sci-tech/Physics teachers has offered his classroom for study space as needed. I hope to have a flyer available for distribution at our Back-To-School Night when we recruit new members. It will list the help opportunities that are available, including the study group that is in the works.

Our teacher makes it very clear that academics come first and if students aren't passing all of their classes, they can not travel. If they miss an opportunity to travel to a competition once, they usually don't make that mistake twice. This, in itself, can be a good life lesson in that it shows how the team can be impacted by the actions of one and that there are consequences in everything. That's how we look at it.

Good thread topic.
Jane

[Allison]

When I was a college student mentoring a team we used grade checks every friday like many sports teams do. This was done from the day of the teams formation in 2006

We also used a method of study group similar to what Jane said. It was not uncommon to see students spend the first hour of the meeting doing homework. It was not uncommon also to see an adviser give instructions for a project then go and sit down to do their homework either.

I found that the best way for us was to lead by example. If I was taking the night of before a big exam it encouraged some of the students to do the same thing before their big exams.

If you make good grades the standard it is much easier to maintain them verse if you suddenly need to deal with it.

[fuzzy1718]

My team checks, ocassonally, for grades. If a member has any grade lower than a C the student spends their time at meetings doing homework instead of working. If the student's average grade is a c or lower than the same applys.
Our team is from a smaller magnet school only 60 students in a graduating class, and we only have 6 teachers in the building, two help mentor the team. (well one now ) So, there is always some one to help with homework. We usually have 2 or 3 students in another room working on homework at some point during a meeting, the option is always there if a student needs it.

[smurfgirl]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

We have a star chart used to measure students progress during the build season from meeting attendance to grade. But we don't just measure thier grades but they cannot have negative comments on their report card such as "talks to much in class" or "doesn't turn in assignments".

Our team thought about that, because human nature makes people competitive, and we thought it would be a good motivation to get people to work hard both in and out of the shop. It never got implemented, for reasons I don't recall.