"I'm not that smart"

[ashleym]

o wow.
thank you to whoever started this post.
This thread really helped me realize that i can take this club on.
My two (girl) friends and I have just joined this club for our senior year and have been elected by the rest of the team as the "presidents" of the club. As great as this all sounds, none of us really know anything about robotics . So if any of you have any advice for us and our team please ,please feel free to message us anytime. We need as much help as we can get. Thanks again.

Ashleym

p.s. also keep the quotes coming... we post them weekly on our First Robotics board for our members.

[uc0nnh00ps]

I know what you mean. Everyone associates robotics as a thng for really only smart people, but that is not the case. I cannot build or run a robot, but I found a way to contribute to the team. I mostly work on public relations, trying to find ways to raise funds and contact businesses for sponsorships and/or donations. During the build season, I write a weekly news article for our newspaper to inform our town on the progression and to encourage others that it is not to late to help. Every team needs people to work behind the scenes to help with fundraising. We all know that building these robots are not cheap. You also need people to thank your current sponsors and/or donators because you need them to continue supporting you. Last year, I also learned how to do some of the wiring on the robot and helped with that. On paper, I may be smart, but there is still a lot about technology that I do not know, but I have learned a lot since I joined my team. All I can tell tose people is that if you can write or use a computer there is a job for you. You can come up with anything to help the team, just be creative, be a cheerleder if that is all that you can do. The team needs to know that the community supports them. Robotics believe it or not can help in the future and will stand out on a college application. Plus, the competitions are a lot of fun. I met so many knew people that I cannot do in any other club in my school. Unfortunately, there are people that think that they are not "smart" and they are missing a great oppertunity.

[chessking132]

I go to the majority of the robot demonstrations that our team does and i get this a lot. I like seeing the kids faces when they look at the robot and say you built that. Then they proceed to ask how long did it take you to build the robot and when you reply six weeks their mouth drops. But then that statement comes i am not that smart enough to build some thing like that. At first i did not know what the best response to this statement was. But after a couple more demos i my response was it looks relay complicated as a hole but when you brake it down it is real just a bunch of simple concepts that allow you to construct a complicated machine. This response sames to work because after that the kids normally seem a little more interested in the program and don't seem to think of it as the geek club.

Matthew Simpson
Team 75 Driver

[ironnoobx3]

On The Occasion yes It has Happened, Also With a Few Other things, at our School, a lot Of The Students Who Came to Our assembly assumed our Robot Was for Destroying and Conquering the Human (No Idea how that Sprung up, it Just did ) I told them No it was More of to Complete various Task In a certain amount of time, And as Soon as I said that, The Interest of Many, dropped a bit, But still were able to Get a lot of new Members

[skiswitch6]

Our team had that problem for a lot of years where FIRST was associated with being some freaky genius (and sometimes that's the case)

But as much as I hate to admit it our team developed into little groups much like a whole high school social setup. It has helped us gain more members but obviously some groups don't get along as much as we'd like. This happen with any other team?

Stoners and more "popular" people in the machine shop- pretty closed group not many people in or out

"Geeks" in software

Quiet kids you barely know are there- Electrical- Usually somewhere in the middle of the social food chain

Lazy immature kids in CAD- Usually those who are constantly gaming or just not doing much.



And just to clarify I don't mean to be disrespectful to any of these groups or discipline areas, thats just how things seemed to work out for us.

Overall thought it has helped get rid of that "i'm not smart enough" thing because theres something for everyone to do because people know that what "groups" they'll fit into, which while it isn't ideal it helps students who otherwise wouldnt have joined get involved in a great program.

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by skiswitch6

Our team had that problem for a lot of years where FIRST was associated with being some freaky genius (and sometimes that's the case)

But as much as I hate to admit it our team developed into little groups much like a whole high school social setup. It has helped us gain more members but obviously some groups don't get along as much as we'd like. This happen with any other team?

Stoners and more "popular" people in the machine shop- pretty closed group not many people in or out

"Geeks" in software

Quiet kids you barely know are there- Electrical- Usually somewhere in the middle of the social food chain

Lazy immature kids in CAD- Usually those who are constantly gaming or just not doing much.



And just to clarify I don't mean to be disrespectful to any of these groups or discipline areas, thats just how things seemed to work out for us.

Overall thought it has helped get rid of that "i'm not smart enough" thing because theres something for everyone to do because people know that what "groups" they'll fit into, which while it isn't ideal it helps students who otherwise wouldn't have joined get involved in a great program.

There are ways to work with the cliques/groups and help the team build itself into a stronger more cohesive team. It takes work and effort and desire. You can do searches using key words like team-building or spend some time looking through some of the forums here in CD. General is good and so is Team Organization. If you are interested send me a PM and I'll point you to a few threads. There are also resources in the FIRST website such as an excellent sampling of team handbooks/manuals. I was just looking at the list of FRC Hall of Fame teams and 151 is one of them, winning the Chairman's in 1995. How cool is that!

Jane

[colin340]

i think one of the best way to fix this problem is to make it clear to them the differences between school (smart) and real world smart. try asking them if they have ever worked on a bike or a lawn mower or taken stuff apart. if that fails then i would play the whole well you can learn this tend to work better on the boy in the crowd thou.

[Molten]

On my team, you don't really have to be smart going in. But I guarantee you will be smart by the time we are done with you.

[Thermal]

I've always wondered as to what made designing and machining a 120lb robot so much more nerdier than designing and machining parts for a car....

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Thermal

I've always wondered as to what made designing and machining a 120lb robot so much more nerdier than designing and machining parts for a car....

Image.

A lot of it can be attributed to image.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by colin340

i think one of the best way to fix this problem is to make it clear to them the differences between school (smart) and real world smart. try asking them if they have ever worked on a bike or a lawn mower or taken stuff apart. if that fails then i would play the whole well you can learn this tend to work better on the boy in the crowd thou.

I like this idea, but to expand, FRC, and engineering at large, isnt about building or making things. It is about problem solving, and everyone has done a puzzle, or solved a math problem. Basically what I always tell the kids on our team is: "You guys are better than trained engineers, they have set ways of looking at things, you dont have those preconceptions. So you guys figure out ways of doing things and we will help you figure out how to make those ideas a reality."

Rather than restate what I have said in other posts I suggest reading here http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...9&postcount=22 Primarily focus on the part that isnt a direct response to the thread.

In response to Jane's comment about image, when we have a movie about Andy Baker similar to Rebel Without a Cause (Rebel without a Transmission?) We may correct that image, until then robots are considered geek things.

[lenny8]

ahh yes the robotics stereo type, to be honest when i first joined my team i didn't know if i would fit in. but as i went on to find out just like most things in life you just have to try it out before you shoot it down. but what i do now is that i tell people when they say that i say well im probly the dumbest person you can meet but i'm a hard worker and good with my hands . A thing that is very key when talking to people about robotics let them know that its NOT just about building robots, theirs animation,business, fashion design ( robot and team) shoot and a very important one is team spirit .
so when that happend let them know that there more than what they see