Gracious Professionalism Award
As a team, we have truly adopted the philosophy of “gracious professionalism”. It has come to signify the mission that guides us as robotics team at school, in our community, and within FIRST.
At the Event:
- It wasn’t that long ago that we were a Rookie team struggling to get inspected, make it onto the field, and actually score a point, or in our case, climb in the last match. We were amazed by all the help that other teams gave us and we are determined to pay it forward.
- At FRC events we make our team and our mentors available to assist teams who are struggling. We readily help with programming issues, lending out tools and giving parts.
- We make the time to welcome new teams to FRC
- Members of the team who are not busy working on our robot, can often be found going from booth to booth checking in with other teams to see if assistance is required.
- When teams make requests to pit admin for parts or tools, we are eager to lend a hand even if it means sacrificing our backup or spare part. Why? Because when we are in need, we know someone else will bend over backwards to help us.
- We frequently check in with FIRST Canada (Ian Koscielski) to see where we can be of help, such as manning stations or touring sponsors and dignitaries.
- Actively promote safety by covering many shifts at the safety glass table and creating safety posters and a set of pins that are distributed to other teams.
- We are always polite, respectful, and encouraging to everyone we interact with in FIRST community.
- We appreciate that the team we compete against in one match, can be our strongest alliance in the next. So we foster goodwill as much as we can.
- When scouting or developing alliance strategy, we strive to emphasize the contribution that all teams can make.
- We want to build on each other’s strengths and to help weaker members leave the field feeling they have done their best
- We suggest ways that we could help each other. We want all of the alliance members to know that we have worked together to do more than we could have on our own.
- Even after a poor performance we focus on what each team did well and share it with them.
- We are working hard this year to share our contagious team spirit with other teams. Our goals include:
- Mascot spreading joy
- Taking a photo of each team and presenting it to them on the final day
- Creating a website where people can share photos of the event.
- Being in the stands to cheer on other teams
- Pins, pins, and more pins.
Reaching out into the community:
- Help First Canada (Ian Koscielski) at events such as BC Tech Summit and the First Lego League
- Teaching Lego Mindstorms to classes in our grade 8 program and our elementary feeder schools. Most of the classes range in size from 24 – 30, of which 2 or 3 students are Aboriginal.
- Showcasing our robot / FRC to staff and students at various school events
- Promote the role of women in our robotics and computer programs. Our lead mentor, our team manager, our drive coach, our build captain, our scouting captain, and our media captain are all female.
- We play key roles in our school’s leadership spirit squad, decorating the school for seasonal holidays, organizing spirit days, and hosting community and school events such as a neighborhood Halloween trick-or-treat party where over 400 elementary school students attend, a Breakfast with Santa for our entire school, a grad breakfast for our Grads, and a special tea for all of graduates and their families.
- We also play a significant role in the production of our yearbook as we learn desktop publishing skills
- We manage and run the school store. We use the funds to support activities and events throughout the school.
- We run a lunch time LEGO club where regular students are paired with our BASES students who have severe learning disabilities. They are currently working together to construct an entire city and amusement park out of LEGO.
- We provide most of the computer and technical support within our school.
As a TEAM:
- In developing our team we take huge efforts to create an environment where all members learn, have fun, and make a positive contribution to the overall success of our team.
- We encourage everyone on the team to move out of their comfort zones and try out new things even if you don’t think that you will be good at it. We want everyone to leave robotics having learned a lot about STEM, but more importantly we want them to learn a lot of lessons that will serve them in all areas of life. We want them to discover strengths and skills they never dreamed possible.
- Our build captain had to learn the basics like types of screw drivers and names of tools. When we first approached her about joining the team, she was not too interested. We asked her to reconsider. In two seasons, with the help of two industry mentors, she has developed from being shy and unsure of her skills, to being a confident and knowledgeable leader who is largely responsible for the success of our design. Now considering a future in STEM, she recognizes the importance of mentoring young females to continue what she has started.
- We encourage all members to set goals, and to do their best and to always challenge themselves to strive higher.
- We have a student who absolutely hated interacting with strangers, speaking out loud or doing presentations. In just the last few months, he has come out of his shell and openly shares his ideas and engages in conversation. In fact, he has gotten over much of his phobia of interacting with strangers and has been an incredibly valuable asset to our scouting team.
- When planning our robot, trouble shooting a problem, or developing game strategy, we encourage all members to get involved in the discussion and to present their ideas. We stress that there are no bad ideas other than the ones that are never mentioned. Sometimes the best ideas come from the most unlikely sources or get spoken way too late.
- We focus on creating an environment that promotes cooperative learning and positive teamwork and interactions.
- We are more than just a team and feel that we have a strong impact on each other and on our school community.
- We are a family and we help each other with our schoolwork and skills that we are struggling to learn. (Marco in Math + Mike in Punjabi)
- As part of our family bonding, we arrived in Victoria a day early so that we could get in a day of fun. We spent the day exploring downtown Victoria and all that it had to offer. We took a trip down memory lane in the Royal B.C. Museum, took a break to play some board games at the Interactivity Board Game Café, scared ourselves attempting the amazing Horror Escape Rooms, discovered pinball machines are actually a lot of fun at Quazar’s Arcade, and eventually ended our journey in The Old Spaghetti Factory.
- When not in build season, we spend many evenings and weekends together playing board games or just hanging out
- We encourage everyone to try robotics and we give opportunities to help out. We make accommodations as necessary. One of our grade 8 students expressed a desire to learn programming. We got him actively involved with teaching Lego Mindstorms to other students in our local community.
- We do our best to make sure that everyone feels as though they are a part of the team no matter how big or small the contribution is. (We have one student who may seem challenging to many teachers, but has incredible marketing skills running our pizza sales and chocolate fundraisers that generate much of the money needed to build our robot)
- We try to maintain a website and media presence that showcases our achievements as a team and provides information about our team and about the FIRST community.
- Finally we are very proud of how inclusive we are.
- Our members range from grade 8 to grade 12,
- Come from different ethnic backgrounds
- Represent different academic and ability levels. We have honour roll students and special needs students working side by side to learn about robotics.
- We work with BASES and LST students to explore programming with LEGO, both Boost and Mindstorms. These students are designated with things such as autism, down syndrome, severe behavioural disorders, and severe learning disabilities.
- We don't think there is any place in the school where such a diverse group of people work together to explore STEM, to foster learning outside the classroom, and to promote working together to achieve a common goal.