QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! [09-02-01]
Hi all, now that most of the people are back in school, that also means the Robotics teams are going to start meetings as well. Two of the most important issues to face would be recruiting new members and organizing the team structure. After all, the seniors should’ve graduated high school and left for college. (For all those graduated students out there, PLEASE don’t be a loser like me and go back to your high school robotics team every weekend…! Go start a new adventure!!!) Well, teams will be facing this issue differently base on their traditions and their plans for the coming year… So, with that in mind, here is the question of the week¡K
**QUESTION 9/02/01: ** What’s the numbers of engineer/teacher/parent/student your team is going to/already have, and how are you organizing them into different groups?
Also, a little related question: what’s the male/female ratio on your team?
Have fun,
-Ken Leung
P.S. I am open to suggestions of any questions you want as the “QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!!”… So e-mail me at [email protected] and show me what you got…
Here are some numbers from the 2001 season from team 353:
Engineers: 1 (from underwriters labs.)
Teachers: 4 (2 from the HS and 2 from the Middle School)
Parents: about 5 active ones
Students: 35
Female: 15 Male: 19
Last year we split up into 2 groups:
Engineering: This group met Monday-Thursday from 7-10 and Saturdays from 9-1.
Publicity: This group met 3 days a week after school for about 2 ½ hours. Here we worked on things such as t-shirt designs, banners, posters, and buttons. The reason we worked so much is because all of our banners were handmade, none of our banners were made for us.
The only thing that upset me about how our team ran like this last year was that most of the girls decided to do the artwork/publicity stuff, and most of the boys did the engineering. There were a few of us who went to both, but it was pretty much split like that. I am proud of my team for being almost 50 50 with the male/female ratio.
A few days ago we had a meeting and started talking about new committees for next year. We want to do this so we can have more kids able to volunteer to be leaders. This will make them feel more important and want to participate more, and ALSO, since we have to many students leaving after the 2002 season for college, we will be able to groom more kids to be leaders. Some of the groups we thought of were:
Engineering, animation, rules/strategy, In school fundraising, public relations, awards.
Hopefully these groups will work this year, and I can’t wait to hear from other people to know if I’m forgetting any groups.
Thanks for responding everyone!!!
We have a 65% underclassmen turnout…all first year.
I really want to get everyone involved with all aspects of this project for their first year, just to see what everyone is good at. Hopefully if we have a large number of returnees next year, then we will try organizing the team into different groups.
My team last year, 495, was as follows:
Engineers: 6 (2 were useless)
Teachers: 2 (1 was for nationals trip only, had nothing to do with the club)
Students: 2 college, 5 active high school
male/female ratio: 3/2 (both females and one male were seniors, only the drivers remained with the team)
The team was split between, working on the drive train and manipulators, and programing. We didn’t turn in an animation because we didn’t have the time or numbers to spare anyone. Our robot was mostly student built, with minimal help from mentors (they were mostly extra hands and trouble shooters). We had some problems with mentors, but we lived through it. I have joined a new team this year, 86, and I’m not really sure how the numbers will pan out but so far it seems pretty balanced between male and female. Team 86 has expressed that the robot will be built mostly by students with some input from the mentors.
Last year we had:
10-15 high school students
3 college students
2 teachers
1 engineer
2 college faculty advisors
4 parents
These numbers are more than likely to go up this year (our second year), especially high school and college students once we begin demos and recruiting for the fall.
Our male:female ratio last year was about 5:1… This year it looks like it will be more even.
Go start a new adventure!!!) Well, teams will be facing this issue differently base on their traditions and their plans for the coming year… So, with that in mind, here is the question of the week¡K