Girls on Teams

[Rohan_DHS]

girls on our team are prettymuch free to take on any role they'd like, if there's something they dont know, and want to learn then we teach them. its pretty open. but mostly, the girls choose to do business oriented tasks. last year, our team president was also a girl.

[waiakea2024]

Well, there are four of us...well four who actually do anything. Out of 10 or 12 people on our travel team. We do a lot of work though. put together we do pretty much everything. I personally, am pneumatics, mechanical, programmer, spirit, and a whole bunch of other things on the team. We are ounumberd, but we do let the guys know that we are there and we are there to work. Fortunatly we are not the typical "cheerleader" type girls. We are not afraid to get our hands dirty or to break a nail. we are "one of the guys" i guess you could say.

[Shawn60]

The problem is, none of them take real initiative to do any of the design work, or fundraising or chairmans stuff. One of the parents on the team blame it on intimidation, most of us guys are pretty scary I guess.

I am trying to make them do more work and get involved, but its hard, I'm not quite sure that they have the desire to learn, and if they don't, they are on the team for the wrong reasons.

Don't sound so superior. The girls joined your team for some reason. They had some goal in mind. Be a LEADER. Maybe it is NOT you job to "make them do work"... Maybe it is your job to "HELP THEM TO ACHIEVE THEIR OWN GOALS".

13 of the 20 members of our team are girls. The girls on our team are OUTSTANDING. Were have 4 team leaders on our team... 3 (two sophomores and a senior) are girls. They do everything on the team. Marketing, fund raising, public speaking, Lego League, machining, presentations, organizing the team appearance, team hand outs, spirit, community outreach, organizing the team banquet, scouting, recruiting new members, and everything else we might do. We have about 14 very, very, involved members and most of them are girls. The best machinist on our team is a sophomore girl. One of the best public speakers on the team is a sophomore girl.

Shawn
Team 60

[Rob Colatutto]

we only have one girl on our team this year, but she is always helpful in public speakings and such. she's also our student mentor this year and her dad is a great help for our team. i know she does what she can, and learns how everything works

[Redhead Jokes]

Originally posted by batbotcrewfrosh
Since we are an all-girls team, we have lately been interested in the roles of girls on co-ed teams. Some members of my team were doing a survey of the number of girls on teams and their jobs at the Buckeye Regional. We were very disappointed to discover that on some teams, girls were given only the job of cheerleader, or publicist. Continuing that, just please give the number of girls on your team, along w/ the number of students on your team, and what the girls usually do. Thanks a lot!

31 students, 9 girls.

15yo Marygrace TIG Welder
18yo Angela Barron Captain, co-driver
18yo Becky accepted into engineering college, co-driver
18yo Tiffany public relations
17yo Breanne painting, spirit, human player
15yo Chelsea machines, working on robot
15yo Veronica painting, spirit
15yo Adriana brand new, has taken auto mechanics
18yo Michelle, working on robot and control board

female captains for the past 3 years, a girl up on the drive team every time.

[Gadget470]

I think the impact of females is being underestimated. The machinst girls are good at what they do. The PR girls are good at what they do. Same as with the guys.

Whether they are electricians, machinists, number crunchers, or "just do PR" (as has been said) there is still strong impact.

I wouldn't be on my current team if it wasn't for one of the PR girls, and I don't think we could have won Engineering Inspiration at GLR if it weren't for the many projects she and the other girls that did PR did.

There are a lot of jobs that need done and it doesn't really matter what gender fills the job. It just happens that more guys than girls want to do the "dirty work" but it's always accepted when they want to jump in.

One girl on our team moved from PR to working on the mill. Another went from PR to helping me with pnuematics. Another from PR to working on the electronics box and control box.

Just because a girl is doing PR or something not "robot building" doesn't really matter. They are just as important. If nobody knows who you are, what you won't be important to anyone else.

[Jeff Waegelin]

We have 23 members, 7 of whom are girls. Two of our captains, three of our best build team members, and two of our drive team members are girls. Not all our girls are very active, but most are, and the ones who are are crucial to our team.

[Redhead Jokes]

Originally posted by Gadget470
I think the impact of females is being underestimated. The machinst girls are good at what they do. The PR girls are good at what they do. Same as with the guys.
Whether they are electricians, machinists, number crunchers, or "just do PR" (as has been said) there is still strong impact.
I wouldn't be on my current team if it wasn't for one of the PR girls, and I don't think we could have won Engineering Inspiration at GLR if it weren't for the many projects she and the other girls that did PR did.

I agree.
Our TIG welder is responsible for getting the most girls to the team. They don't know they'd be interested. After the fact we find that some of the them have a knack for the "dirty work" they didn't know they had.

We won Engineering Inspiration Award in Phoenix because we have a weekly open house that's been featured in AOL Digital City as #3 pick for Kids and Family in LA. When the public drops in they see the 2003 Animation of the game, the 2001 video of our national championship, our storyboards, our straw and cardboard drive train prototype, our 2001 championship robot, the kids ride on the goal the robot can grab, kids and adults drive the robot. People from as far as an hour away came. I can still hear the father, "This trip was SO worth it!"

Tiffany, public relations, is in particular excellent at PR, talking at all our exhibitions. I remember Veronica surprising all of us talking easily to the public at the TRW Open House (@1000 employees and their families) touring a room about our program.

Our painter, Breanne, is in particular undervalued. Some on the team say, "why spend all that time". She's not undervalued to me. She painted our facilities cupboards , her designs are on our tool cupboards , all sides and top of our crate .

Everytime her painting brightens my spirit, teaches others, current, and new team members who we are (surfing was introduced to US in Redondo, 2 rival teams on one robotics' team).

[Josh Hambright]

The girls on our team ROCK! (And i'm not just saying that to win brownie points...)

Lemme think. Our PR coordinator is a college student and her team is made up of 2 college females and one high school male.

One of our Technical Co-Coordinators is a lady, she was the person who ran the team but wanted to have more hands on control so she took that position this year.
On the technical team we have another girl.

We have 1 girl on our IT team who worked extensively on the animation this year. I think she was doing modeling and making textures, and considering she came in like a week before build season she picked up on everything really fast!

On the technical team we have 4 girls. 1 is on the electrical/pneumatics/controls/programming team and she is our trainy this year so that when we graduate she can take over for us. We have 1 girl on our team who has extensivly worked on our robot for the last 3 year and is a master on the lathe. And we have another girl on the tech team that does alot of work all over the robot. And the last technical girl is also our human player and a member of our scouting team, she has been on the team for 3 years also and does alot of work, i know she did some work doing angle brackets this year All of the technical girls did extensive work on Inventor and are all fluent in CAD.

Our girls do just as much as the boys and alot more then some of them.

[adventrx327]

Our team is pretty small, and we have only 4-5 girls on our team. THey do help contribute milling, drilling, soldering, etc., but I dont think we involve them quite as much as we should. Partially this is due to a lack of knowledge of the actual electronic components (etc. spike vs victor, difference in relay vs pwm output, etc), but next year we will focus on EDUCATION for the first part of the year.

But guess what? Our mentor that helped me learn C (well, machine based) was a woman (i guess a girl because she's reallly young)!!!

[Bridgette]

I'm one of three girls on my team, and at most meetings, I was the only girl there. I helped with electrical work, wrote our team's Chairman's Award with one of the other girls on the team. I'm also co-captain and manipulator. I was the only girl at most meetings, but I didn't let that stop me from doing anything. It wasn't too hard for me to become part of the team because my brother has been on 121 for 4 years and I know most of the other team members from school. I haven't experienced any discrimination other than good-natured teasing. It's hard to relate to the guys sometimes (like at regionals when they're checking out girls), but we're all one big happy family most of the time.

[Winged Wonder]

team 233 (aka the PINK team) has a pretty decent guy to girl ratio. i'm not sure of the exact figures, but its pretty close to 50:50. the girls do so much for our team, if i do say so myself. Those of you who saw the girls painted pink at the 2004 UCF regional (yeah i was one of them) but thats not all we girls do! sure we females are there for spirit (boys paint themselves pink too!), but a lot of us helped with building the robot, our practice playing field, scouting, etc. We've got 2 girls in Pit crew... one is our lovely Tool Girl, who does a very nice job i might add (shes a sophmore), and out pit cheif (who is a junior) is also a girl, and its even her first year on the team! a lot of girls tried out for human player and driver too. we girls help a lot with design and things like that, and i mean, seriously, our team color is PINK. you all just KNOW that had some female influence. there were also three girls, including myself, who worked on our admission for chairmans award (yours truely was the project manager), and i also helped with making the little pink team trading cards we have.. good luck if any of you can find them. lol i'm also the team 'seamstress'... i made a flag and button banners.... anyways, i'm living proof of the "little sister factor".. i got interested in robotics because of my brother (hes the arm operator for our robot this year!). the girls have been welcomed and accepted to the group, and its just like a great big family! ^_^ (i've even become an adopted little sister by some of my teammates lol) but yeah anyways, girls on team 233 arent just there to just stand around and look cute, we have some major imput to our team and are every bit as valuable as the boys!

[KingsvilleKukes]

There are about 25 students on our team, five of wich are girls. We are all doing PR this year, but i know i definatly will be helping more on buliding next year! I hope that next year more girls will want to join, i don't think the boys would mind.

[Jay H 237]

Originally Posted by KingsvilleKukes

There are about 25 students on our team, five of wich are girls. We are all doing PR this year, but i know i definatly will be helping more on buliding next year! I hope that next year more girls will want to join, i don't think the boys would mind.

When you are demonstating your robot at different events it's good to have some of the girls on your team there. This way when other girls are interested they'll feel more comfortable talking to the female members of your team and they will also realize if you can be part of the team, so can they. Let them know they can program, machine, weld, assemble, wire, and drive the robot and not just doing the chairmans award and misc stuff.

[Redhead Jokes]

Originally Posted by Jay H 237

When you are demonstating your robot at different events it's good to have some of the girls on your team there. This way when other girls are interested they'll feel more comfortable talking to the female members of your team and they will also realize if you can be part of the team, so can they. Let them know they can program, machine, weld, assemble, wire, and drive the robot and not just doing the chairmans award and misc stuff.

Exactly!
The culture on our team several years ago were girls and freshman to be tolerated, not encouraged.

For the past couple of years we've changed that culture. A girl has to be up on the drive team each time, all members work on something robotically AND PR wise.

It's helped shift the guys or upper classmen perception about gracious professionalism and being inclusive rather than exclusive.

It also helped our team to double the number of girls on the team, and encourage 2 of them to take the jr college welding class and become TIG welders. It also helped this past weekend in AZ for the brand new girl to realize she could participate in many ways, AND choose to be trained as a programmer for this next season.