"FIRST in the Classroom" - a fall semester high school course

[ICntIHaveRbtics]

I've heard from a lot of my friends and other students of how awesome it would be if there was a "FIRST" class in high school that you could get high school credit for (or maybe even college?). I formulated my thoughts about what this class would be like (what would be covered, etc.) and am looking for your thoughts. Anything you would add, or take out, or any other criticism is encouraged, as I will be bringing this idea up to the right people here at FIRST to discuss sometime soon.

FIRST in the Classroom
Taking a class in FIRST Robotics for high school credit

Purpose:
To allow students who participate in the FIRST Robotics Competition to receive elective credit towards their high school diploma while learning about and establishing all the different aspects of a FIRST Robotics Competition team that go into competing each year. Upon completion of "FIRST in the Classroom", students will receive high school elective credits towards the required credit count at their High School. While this class would only be offered in a fall semester, it aims to entice students who take the class to continue with FIRST Robotics after school when the semester is over and the build/competition season has started. Subsequently, by having a FRC class, the FRC team that's associated with the school would receive the benefit of having a contact/body within the school to help them foster the FIRST relationship with the school community.

How a "FIRST in the Classroom" Course would be "very loosely" structured (by "units"):
Engineering Basics
Programming Basics
Team Management Basics (Business Plan?)
Marketing & Fundraising Basics
???

Some specific assignments/activities could include:
Basic metal shop safety / how to use machines (drill press, milling machine, bandsaw)
Program a very simple small robot in the same language as what the FRC robots would use
Establish a business plan for the team for the upcoming season
Split up into pairs and be assigned a business to approach about sponsorship
???

FAQ:

Q: Who would take this class?
A: Students already on the high school's FRC team or students that are interested in joining the FRC team. Just because you take the class doesn't mean you're committed to the team. The class is meant to be "the hook" for students who are unsure and aren't sure about dedicating after school time from the program once kickoff rolls around.

Q: Can a student take this class more than once for credit?s
A: Yes! And it is encouraged, since every year is a new year and concepts that are covered in the classroom will be integrated into the school's FRC team.

[dtengineering]

It sounds like a good idea if:

You've got a teacher who can teach it.

Your school has the facilities to make it happen.

You can get enough students to sign up for it so that the course will run.

Jason

[Mr MOE]

FRC Teams 365 and 316 have been using our already established programs and a partnership with Salem Community College in Carneys Point, NJ, to provide up to 18 college credits to FIRST students over a multi-year period. Students need to be active in our build season, and for MOE, participate actively in our MOE University activity during the fall.

MOE is a multi-school team, so we do not do any of this during school hours. It is all done after school at our facilities at DuPont.

[Chief Pride]

When I was on Team 47 we had an after school class. All of the team was enrolled into the class and usually most of the designated class time was used for planning/meetings. Students would still stay even later than the class to work on the robot/individual tasks.

When a robotics team member graduated he/she was also awarded a varsity letter.

[Boommaster713]

Team 932 from Tulsa, Oklahoma has a year round program based out of a purpose built facility at our school. Our physics and calculus teacher is the teams primary sponsor and due to the work rooms and classrooms being a separate wing students can work for as long as our mentors want to stay at school. For the future, our mentors are still trying to convince the school service center to allow the Robotics class to count for additional credits for involved individuals (For example: Programmers get a technical credit, animators get art/graphics design).
Oklahoma also has FIRST teams at technical schools around the state where students attend through concurrent enrollment and then participate with the technical school's facilities.

[Wildcat]

it would be sweet if my school had a class like this. the closest we have is just a general robotics class

[ICntIHaveRbtics]

Originally Posted by Mr MOE

FRC Teams 365 and 316 have been using our already established programs and a partnership with Salem Community College in Carneys Point, NJ, to provide up to 18 college credits to FIRST students over a multi-year period...

Can you PM me more information about this that I may be able to share with my supervisor?

I'm curious, for teams that are getting credit for all their after school work -- do you have benchmarks? How do you keep track and grade "work" and do you have "midterms" and "finals"? Basically, what would you be able to show a curriculum coordinator that outlines the student's competence on the team? Mind you, I'm not well versed in everything that goes into actually creating curriculum, I'm just using what I've observed from high school.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by ICntIHaveRbtics

Can you PM me more information about this that I may be able to share with my supervisor?

I'm curious, for teams that are getting credit for all their after school work -- do you have benchmarks? How do you keep track and grade "work" and do you have "midterms" and "finals"? Basically, what would you be able to show a curriculum coordinator that outlines the student's competence on the team? Mind you, I'm not well versed in everything that goes into actually creating curriculum, I'm just using what I've observed from high school.

Back in my first FVC team, Robotics was a class used for "extracurricular credit". Basically, it took the "9th block" in a schedule and showed up pass - fail on transcripts. I know a few FRC teams run like this as well. Shaker Robotics students can get community service credit for doing Chairman's related work on the team, for example

[Alex2614]

we have an FLL team in 5 of our 7 public and private middle schools in our county. Some of these schools are integrating their team(s) into an elective class that everyone 6-8 grade can take for "elective" credit.

[scottydoh]

We had a class like this in Smithtown for a few years back in the early 2000's. Unfortunately the class was cancelled due to low enrollment, and I never got a chance to take it.

[yaron]

Originally Posted by ICntIHaveRbtics

FIRST in the Classroom
Taking a class in FIRST Robotics for high school credit

Purpose:
To allow students who participate in the FIRST Robotics Competition to receive elective credit towards their high school diploma while learning about and establishing all the different aspects of a FIRST Robotics Competition team that go into competing each year. Upon completion of "FIRST in the Classroom", students will receive high school elective credits towards the required credit count at their High School. While this class would only be offered in a fall semester, it aims to entice students who take the class to continue with FIRST Robotics after school when the semester is over and the build/competition season has started. Subsequently, by having a FRC class, the FRC team that's associated with the school would receive the benefit of having a contact/body within the school to help them foster the FIRST relationship with the school community.

How a "FIRST in the Classroom" Course would be "very loosely" structured (by "units"):
Engineering Basics
Programming Basics
Team Management Basics (Business Plan?)
Marketing & Fundraising Basics
???

Some specific assignments/activities could include:
Basic metal shop safety / how to use machines (drill press, milling machine, bandsaw)
Program a very simple small robot in the same language as what the FRC robots would use
Establish a business plan for the team for the upcoming season
Split up into pairs and be assigned a business to approach about sponsorship

MisCar team 1574 has developed a series of workshops inviting other teams to participate in.
For our team member we do have a course, meeting every friday from 09:00 to 13:00. teaching the basics of mechanics, electronics and control, programming and CAD.
We have actually been thinking of inserting learning material to our website but still did not manage to get it done, maybe next year.
Good luck in the 2011 season.

[Leeebowitz]

Our team has a different kind of system. Since our team has very low numbers of students, we have an "Engineering" class run by the teacher who is also the head of our team. Signing up for Engineering doesn't mean you have to be with the team. In theory, the course has nothing to do with FIRST. You can go through the course without even knowing what FIRST is. However, credit is given in the class for working on FIRST-related projects. And, knowing the teacher, I'm sure that at least several times the opportunity to be on the team is brought up.

The class is mainly a CADing and building class, so people don't get exposed to other aspects such as the programming or fundraising, but it's a good way to recruit new students and reward students already on the team.

The class described in the original post, while similar in many ways, most likely wouldn't work with our team simply because we don't have enough students and even calling the class "Robotics" and not requiring participation on the team would scare most of the people in Engineering away. I bring this up simply as a suggestion for teams who want a class but don't have enough students involved to have a class entirely devoted to FIRST.