How do you recruit for your VIQC team? What strategies do you have for people looking to grow their teams? I would love to hear!
@David_Kelly Im guessing you probably have some good tips and tricks for starting a team or looking for new members of the team.
Hi @Alaina_Caulkett I begin by showing the game release during my STEM lessons to all of our students. I have been able to generate great interest in being part of our Robotics lunch-time club. I also talk about the different roles that students can undertake on the team, it is amazing to see students get excited when they understand they can be communicators, researchers, note-bookers, builders, drivers and programmers and learn together and from each other the roles to really build team skills. I’m looking forward to hearing what others are doing in their contexts.
Great suggestions @Michele_Pikunic! I found doing a “drive a robot” informal thing before school starts in the morning and follow up in a couple of days with an evening parents meeting works well. Sample presentation from a couple years ago.
Fantastic ideas too @David_Kelly. “Drive a robot” is a great suggestion. Thanks for sharing a sample presentation.
These are great ideas @Michele_Pikunic & @David_Kelly!
While I didn’t have a “team” when I was a STEAM teacher, I did have an after school robotics club. I would set up a field with a couple robots in my STEM Classroom during Conferences or Parent/Teacher Nights and encourage parents and students to experiment with driving the robots around the field. It was a great way to hook students and parents alike!
It didn’t usually take much encouragement — once they saw someone driving a robot (whether it was me or their student) the parents/families were dying to try!
It was also a great opportunity to for students to “be the expert” and show what they had learned about the robot with their families, and even show siblings and parents how to drive it!
Getting that buy-in from families was key to engaging students to join my after school robotics club, recruit new members, and ensure that they consistently attended!
