All Girls Teams?

[riboSquirrel]

girls being on a team can be both entertaining ... if not stranbge at times... but hey, the guys need us

[GaryVoshol]

Six years ago when my daughter's school organized FLL, there were too many for one team. They split up guys/girls (numbers were ~equal). The girls went on to be a very successful team (Dragon Devils, Michigan, in case anyone remembers).

Usually a school doesn't have the problem of too many participants for one team - I'd guess there would have to be somewhere between 50 and 100 team members before a split would become necessary (depending on team dynamics, roles, particpation levels, etc.). If you have to do a split and there are enough girls, then you can consider it.

Unfortunately there is another reason to set up a new all-girls team - if on the existing team the girls are relegated to background roles. All too often it happens, not just on FIRST teams, that the stereotype of "girls can't do Math/Engineering/Science" prevails. If girls can't break into leadership and technical roles on an existing team, they should explore setting up a separate team, perhaps in conjunction with girls from neighboring teams who feel the same way. They would have to find separate funding sources, mentors and build locations. But it could be done if it is needed. Just the threat of breaking off might give the existing team the wakeup call that it needs - "Hello, 21st Century calling!"

[Liz Smith]

Originally Posted by KathieK

Besides, I thought 1929 had done just this in Montclair?

This is basically why I started this thread. I was formerly a female co-captain on 555 and was the only girl on 2 out of 4 of the trips we went on last year. I was surprised when I had heard that Montclair was making a whole new team of girls (1929) since we only had a few girls last year.

[nightrenegade00]

I <3 girls whether they are on an all girls team or not. and whether or not they are part of robotics or not...

[Liz Smith]

Originally Posted by nightrenegade00

I <3 girls whether they are on an all girls team or not. and whether or not they are part of robotics or not...

I'll assume thats because of the beneficial and valuable knowledge and input we give when working in groups.

[Adam Shapiro]

As to the discussion, just from seeing the results this far it seems to me that having an all-girls team along with a co-ed team is quite detrimental. All it really seems to do is further segregate the teams, and make it much more difficult for the statistically smaller girls team. It also takes away valuable input from the co-ed team who, despite being co-ed, is left seemingly without girls as the girls no longer have the time to commit to both robots.

[MarsBOtkid]

Originally Posted by Jeffdewber

There is actually an all girls team out here. I forget there number but they always have a pink robot they do pretty well at regionals Chespeake in particular.

Are yo thinking of think pink or another team?

[Sgraff_SRHS06]

Originally Posted by Jeffdewber

There is actually an all girls team out here. I forget there number but they always have a pink robot they do pretty well at regionals Chespeake in particular.

Les Femmes Fatales? Team 709, I guess.

[irishninja]

Originally Posted by phrontist

Very, very, very, few companies have entirely female employess. Very few, but slightly more are all male. This also wastes resources and would be socially bizzare.

How do you have an employee thats not entirely female? BTW for the comment about girls joining because of guys theres a 56 page thread in the chit chat section on dating.

[IraJason]

Originally Posted by irishninja

How do you have an employee thats not entirely female? BTW for the comment about girls joining because of guys theres a 56 page thread in the chit chat section on dating.

He probably meant to say that few companies are made entirely of female employees. It was just a weird word choice.

[SenseiSkins]

Id like an all girls team

[Safarley2901]

Originally Posted by Pika1579

There always is talk about how to get more girls involved in robotics. I know of some teams of girls from all-girl schools, but what about in co-ed schools?

What do all of you think about forming all girl FRC teams in addition to an existing FRC team in a co-ed school? From what I've heard from people I know in robotics there have been the stand points:

1. Its good! It gets more girls involved!

2. Its not so good! The girls are completely separated and not as much learning and sharing of knowledge involved!

I'd like to get an idea what the whole FIRST community has to say on this issue.

How many people can raise that much money every year?

[chinckley]

I'd just like to have one girl on our team. My daughters come to the meetings out of necessity and are starting to take interest and learn about some things. One day I hope they will participate on our team.

We do not have many students on our team (about 12 regulars).
I keep trying to interest more of my programming girls but even those numbers are low this year.

Any ideas how to market to girls too.

Carolyn

[karinka13]

im on an all girls team (433) and we do just fine every year with recruiting and competitions and whatnot.

i think having an all girls team in a co-ed school is absolutely ridiculous though. the only reason my team is all girls is because my school is all girls. by separating girls from the boys, it's like saying that they SHOULD be separate. as a girl and a future engineer, i find this incredibly insulting. if you want to spread the message that girls are just as good as guys, dont make them separate teams. have them all working together, competing against each other, etc.

[Xchuck14X]

This is ridiculous, I'm on Team 1929, and I was one of it's founders, now that it's the end of the 2006 build season I look back and am very glad we have become two teams. The Montclair's teams work together, are friends, and always hangout together, but when we were combined there just was too many people and not enough work. Last year I was on Team 555 and 2 girls showed up for the build season, one of them was me and the other a co-captain. This year there are 15 members on the all-girls team, 7 of them very involved, and I know if they were on Team 555 this year they would still not know how to use power tools, configure electrical boards, program a robot, know c++, know how to make a website in java script and html, design, and many other things. When the teams were combined a person who didn't know how to do something didn't always learn how, it was no ones fault but that was just the way it was, this year there are more chances for girls and the boys to learn because there is more work.
So I understand that having 2 teams might not work well in every school, but in ours it has worked well.