I was fortunate enough to view the screening of Underwater Dreams at the Championship event, I got to hang around for the Q&A after the show. Something that Fredi said really stuck with me, and I’d like to discuss it with you all.
Mr. Lajvardi jokingly mentioned there is an inverse-proportional degree of fame with 842 and proximity to Carl Hayden High School. He and his colleagues have been on vacation, far away from home, and people strike up conversations with them because they are recognized or are wearing Falcon Robotics shirts. Yet, at home in Arizona, they’re largely ignored - or taken for granted.
Which leads me to the question - why? Here we’ve got a World Woodie Flowers Award winner, working with a World Hall of Fame team, with what appears to be a very supportive administration, team members who have been featured on CNN and ABC specials, two films this year, the cover of Time Magazine - yet are anonymous in their own hallways.
What has your team done to raise awareness and pride around your school and hometown? What can we do to lift up others in our communities? How is it that our brethren can be featured at the front of the Thanksgiving Day Parade, yet half the student body doesn’t know we exist? Or why?
I think it might have to do with the anonymity. People grow used to the team at their school, but in other places it might be novel to see a new robotics team around.
Many students do not attend events such as parades or other outreach opportunities. Now, if the team built a football throwing robot and showed it off at halftime of a football game, people might notice a bit more.
Probably every team has at least one mentor whose contributions are priceless but he/she is little known outside the team’s workshop or pit.
Our team has built several T-shirt firing robots on past year chassis that they drive around during football and basketball games. They shoot team related school shirts into the crowd on the fly while driving it remotely. Gets a good crowd response, displays the robot to kids and families from multiple schools around the area.
I can’t speak to Fredi’s problem, but whenever I wear my team short or jacket I get people stopping me to talk robots. We’re in the paper almost every month, honored at several town council & Board of Ed meetings annually, and usually visible at any event in our four towns (parades, community events, etc.).
I think part of its cultural, our demographics, at our school soccer is everything, football is second, then basketball and then maybe robotics…at least we are in the mix. Many kids in our area have many other concerns just to get by maybe…I don’t know, but it is weird to be more known the farther we get away from school. Its also kind of fun!