Presentation Tips- Guest Blog!

Hey, ladies! Guest blogger Chair(Wo)man here to give you some tips on—you guessed it—that ever-terrifying Chairman’s presentation you have coming up (That’s right, HappBee, I’m looking at you). Here are a few things that I’ve found helpful in my three years of Chairman’s endeavors:

1.       Present the essence of your team. What is your team known for? Don’t tell me you’re not known for anything—believe me, if you think about it, there’s something that comes to mind when someone says your team number. Whether you’re known for your outstanding spirit, for being the brightest team in the stands, or for being professional, highlight—and even overdo—that aspect. You want the judges to know who you are and where you’re from, so SHOW THEM!

2.       Make the judges remember you. I don’t care if this means you have to do cartwheels as you enter the presentation room. There might be A LOT of teams presenting where you are, and you want to make sure that when the judges see your team number again, they go, “Oh, they were the team that did this,” or, “Oh, yeah, the team that had that super effective prop!” or whatever. Leave something with them, maybe, like a binder full of pictures of things your team has done or a few of your team’s shirts or cutouts of your team number or SOMETHING. Make it impossible for them to forget what you said. And speaking of what you said…

3.       Don’t regurgitate your essay. The judges have already read it, I promise. If you try to cram yout whole essay into a five minute presentation, you’ll be talking so fast that you won’t have enough breath left to answer whatever questions they might have, and the judges won’t have any idea what you just said anyway. Pick a few things from your essay and highlight them in detail. Also, talk about the things you’ve done since you submitted your essay, or how you’ve expanded projects, or even what you’re doing at your regional. Keep it smooth and easy to listen to, and make sure you can talk S L O W.

4.       Keep your whole team on the same page. Make sure EVERYONE knows what you say in your presentation and how you said it. When judges come around to talk to your team, they won’t want to hear from you, because they already have. They’ll want to make sure your whole team knows what your team does. So make sure your team knows your presentation almost as well as you do and can present it differently than you already have, especially those who hang out in your pit all day. And finally…

5.       BREATHE! Trust me, girl, I know you’re nervous. But believe me when I say the hardest presentation you will make won’t be for the judges, but for your team, because they know the details of your content. The judges aren’t scary monsters. They’re just people who want to hear your story. They want you to be comfortable and give the best presentation you can, so give it to them! Remember to keep eye contact and speak like you’re having a conversation, not reciting a memorized speech that you’ve been saying in your sleep for weeks (I mean, we all know that’s what it is, but pretend it isn’t). You know your team, you know your presentation, now share it!

Just remember, ladies, that this is no big deal. It may seem like the scariest thing you’ve ever done, but it’s 10 minutes with two or three people who genuinely want to hear what you have to say.

I fully intend on winning Championship Chairman’s this year, but I don’t believe it’s winning unless you beat the best. I hope I see you presenting in St. Louis!

Much love,
The Chair(Wo)man

Women In Engineering: Kelly Callan

What originally inspired your interest in STEM?
Hands on experience working with grease and mechanical parts in the family garage
is what inspired my interest in STEM growing up. There is no substitute for real-
world or hands on exposure (like FIRST). FIRST was not presented to me as an
option when I was in high school, but I wish I had been able to participate! If you
enjoy STEM topics in a hands-on setting, such as FIRST, I would recommend seeing
if you also enjoy those topics in the classroom. While classes are not necessarily
indicative of the exact work you would do in many STEM careers, they are important
steps on the road to a STEM career, and important steps to developing your ability to
think.

What’s it like working in a field primarily dominated by men?
Working in a field primarily dominated by men can be a very different experience
depending on the specific industry and company in which you work. One thing
that stands out for me, working primarily with men affects the dynamic of women
working with other women. Women can end up being more judgmental towards
other women in the workplace. Be cognoscente of this, and support women in the
workplace who are worth supporting.
Women can learn a lot from men, and vice versa. The gender gap is often portrayed
in a negative light, but you can use it to your advantage by considering your learning
opportunities and knowing YOU bring special strengths to the table in a STEM
career. If you plan on entering a STEM career, put some of your time into learning
about the differing dynamics between men and women – learn about how women
tend to think and operate, how men tend to think and operate, and about strengths
and weaknesses. Read books, read articles. Educate yourself a bit on these topics
and I think you will find it well worth your while. It will enhance your perspective
and increase your ability to function successfully in a STEM workplace, oftentimes
dominated by men.


What was college like?
College was wonderful time for me – though it was often difficult, I learned a great
deal. YOU decide what you will make of your college experience. You can make as
little or as much of the experience as you choose. If you are involved in STEM, you
are already someone who has decided to maximize your time and get involved with
extracurricular activities. Continue this in college. Also, if you do pursue learning in
STEM topics, also pursue extracurricular activities outside of your STEM. You will
enrich your experience by meeting people, gaining exposure to different viewpoints,
and increasing the gender/racial/etc. distribution of people with whom you interact.

What was your biggest challenge in college?
Maintaining balance was my biggest challenge in college. For my first two years
I struggled with maintaining health and happiness, due to high stress levels and
feeling like I was never caught up with my work. I was very active in extracurricular
activities, and had a heavy course load. For busy and driven college students, I have
two pieces of advice that stand out from my experience. First, do not be obsessed
with your grades. Obviously grades are important, but don’t let your focus on
grades overshadow your ability to learn and retain what you are learning. Second,
be aware of your health and happiness throughout college. You are learning about
so much more than academics in college. You will be making more decisions for
yourself than ever before – everything from how many hours to spend on homework,
how many hours to spend sleeping, whether or not to join certain clubs and social
organizations, who to call your friends, what substances to put in your body, having
relationships, where to live, etc.. Learn from the results of your decisions, and
consider those results in the context of how you want to live your life, in college and
beyond.

How do you deal with failure?
I am usually very hard on myself after experiencing a failure – what’s worse; most
things I consider to be failures are just small everyday occurrences when I may not
have done something as perfect as I would have liked. Let me be clear, this is NOT
a good thing. Having a perfectionist mentality, failure is something I have struggled
with for a long time. It has taken me a long time to learn to accept mistakes as a
normal part of life, and I still have to work on this every day.

What has helped me most has been observing my peers and co-workers deal with
mistakes. I tend to see men brush off mistakes or not admit their actions were in fact
a mistake, but they treat mistakes as a normal, expected occurrence – not something
necessarily wrong. Women tend to dwell on mistakes, feel bad, apologize, and then
think about it more. I’m not saying you should dismiss all mistakes and think you
can do no wrong – no one likes to work with arrogance – but I’ve learned to deal
better with mistakes by taking cues from others who can take mistakes in stride.


 Do you have any advice for young women interested in STEM?
Go for it! STEM careers are so much fun! Yes, you will probably be surrounded by
a larger percentage of males for many years to come, but that’s ok. Learn about your
strengths; find ways to apply them, and seek opportunities that will let you utilize
them. Educate yourself on the differing dynamics between men and women. Learn
from the men you work with, and support the women you work with. Let me repeat,
support the women you work with (who are worth supporting).

Louise Palardy: Chemical Engineer

A word from Louise Palardy on life as a Chemical Engineer

What originally inspired your interest in STEM?

My interest started in high school, I had the most awesome Chemistry teacher - I knew at that time that I wanted to take more chemistry classes.

What’s it like working in a field primarily dominated by men?

When in a work environment, it does not seem to matter as much as you would think.  Everyone has a common goal with projects / business demands and working together is critical just like a team.

How do you overcome difficulties?

I usually start out by venting to someone that I trust.  Then I make an action plan and tackle the problem.

What was your first job in your field?

My first job was a Loss Prevention Engineer (Fire and Explosion hazard inspector) for Manufacturing / Industrial Companies.

What do you most enjoy about your job?

Learning.

What was college like?

I liked the variety of classes that I took and made some great friends.

What was your biggest challenge in college?

The biggest challenge was balancing work and college.  Everyone wants to do their best and there is only so much time.

How do you deal with failure?

I think about how I would handle it better next time.

What, to you, made it all worth it?

I was driven to graduate from college, I put more pressure on myself than my parents did.

If you could go back in time, would you do anything differently?

No I would not.

What would you consider the defining moment of your career?

When my boss left, I had to take over the department.  At first I was petrified, then it was not so bad. They decided not to replace him.

Do you have any advice for young women interested in STEM?

Give it a try, take classes that you like and it will lead to a career that you like.

A Family Matter

I write you in a spirit of mourning, to ask for your thoughts in this time of solemn reflection. One of our own has passed on. Our beloved safety captain is no longer with us. While plans fall in to replace him, the moment to grieve for his passing comes now.

Squirt Squishy Killer Bee, also known as The SSB, or just Squirt, was bought at Meijer’s at 11:30 on Saturday, February 4th, for 19¢. A group of Bees were out shopping for craft supplies to put together their Chairman’s presentation and had been going from store to store looking for what they needed. The first store – Michel’s – had been conveniently located next to a Petco, where the idea of a Team Pet (I mean, we’re a family! And all families need a pet!”) came from. By the second store, every item looked at was mentioned along side ‘how about a fish, too,’ at the third store one student discovered he had brought his wallet, and by the time we reached Meijer’s we were chanting ‘Team Fish!’ while skipping through the store to where they kept the fish tanks.

Squirt started his life happy in our CAD room. We bought him a bowl and food, and cleared out a whole square shelf of storage for his bowl to sit in. We made him a name tag, and fed him carefully – even making a feeding chart to ensure he received the correct amount of nutrients a day. At lunch time we introduced our SSB to the rest of the team. One mentor predicted that “This will be the year remembered as ‘the year we got the fish.’” Indeed, things looked up for Squirt, so surrounded by love and support.

But, there were complications none could have predicted. Around 3:00, Squirt started settling to the bottom of his bowl. One mentor assured us he was sleeping, or just tired from having so many people around. Another mentor told us that Squirt – as a 19¢ gold fish – wasn’t supposed to live that long. In fact, he was meant to be food for bigger fish. (This information was followed with descriptive stories of how his starfish attacked and ate fish like Squishy. I was grateful most Chairman’s girls had left by then.) By around 4, we started becoming suspicious that Squirt was not in fact sleeping, and eventually brought out a stick to gently poke him with. After several pokes and still no movement, Squirt was officially declared dead.

A boy proudly carried Squirt in his bowl above his head in an all-male funeral procession to the boy’s bathroom, where laughing was heard while the remaining girls grieved.
Perhaps it was the lack of light he received on his shelf, or maybe the sink water in his bowl wasn’t clean enough. Maybe we didn’t clean the bowl itself enough before putting it in, or maybe he just wasn’t meant to live.

Regardless of the cause, the ending doesn’t change.  
We will always remember how gold his scales were, and how he used to blow bubbles. We all have fond memories of how he ate his food, and was promoted to safety captain after less than fifteen minutes on the team. Perhaps, had he lived long enough, he could have one day driven our robot in the Hybrid mode. Now, with his passing, we will never know. So much potential, flushed away.

A list has already been made of preparations we would have to undergo before replacing fish, for the pain of Squirt’s loss is still a fresh hole that needs to be filled. I ask you, my fabulous female FIRSTers, for your fish-keeping advise, to help let any fish that may replace our SSB live longer than five hours.
I’m Scoutette, Buzzing off.

Just A Note...

The next posts, with some exceptions, are about bonding experiences within Team 33. Feel free to use these ideas to create your own team unity, or just sit back and enjoy the hilarity of Scoutette and her lovely accounts on her adventures in FIRST.

But as a slight judge of impartiality, I'd go against the idea of team pets....

HappBee

The Best of Both Worlds

On January 7, 2012, Christmas came 352 days early for me. The Game Design Committee played Santa Claus, and FIRSTmas did NOT disappoint.

Most of you probably share the same sentiment, as it’s one of the best days of the year. Kickoff: the one day where every idea counts, a level playing field is handed out by FIRST and every team starts with a clean slate. It’s similar to the fresh and brand-new feeling you get on the first day of school…just exponentially better. Sitting in the Chrysler Museum and watching the broadcast from New Hampshire, I was just as anxious as the next avid FIRST-er. However, when the game was announced, two seemingly unrelated aspects of my life collided. You could see the little ginger Ellen in pantone 123-C bouncing up and down like a kid on Christmas morning. As a two-year varsity basketball player and a Killer Bee, I was absolutely ecstatic.

Rebound Rumble lit a fire under my belly. As a girl, it’s hard to have confidence in yourself to believe that you truly DO know what you’re talking about. However, I knew as well as anyone else that if I know something, it’s basketball. Somewhat surprisingly, my mentors and fellow Bees picked up on this concept as well. The day after Kickoff, my Bee buddies Demi, Jess, and Mama Green all went outside to the driveway in the harsh Michigan weather for a little lesson I’d like to call Bee Basketball 101.

Demi, a rather vertically challenged and non-athletic Bee, openly admits that she knows absolutely nothing about basketball. In my impromptu lesson/strategy session, I went back to the basics. I began playing basketball in sixth grade. In my WannaBee years, I was basketball player and a member of my middle school’s FLL team, which was then (and currently) mentored by Killer Bee parents and students. Trying to teach my counterparts, I thought back to what my sixth grade coach would tell my team so that we hopefully might score a few baskets in the entire game. “Use the backboard…put some arc under your shot…use your legs…” The whole shebang.

After some intense sixth-grade basketball physics, we went inside and did our real research for the game. It was awesome to finally connect that what my seemingly crazy coaches tell me actually connects to real science and physics that can be portrayed in this year’s game. In the days since Kickoff, my shot has improved consistently because I’m constantly focused on the mechanics of how I shoot the rock versus how a robot could do it. Thanks, Dean! As well as helping myself improve at a personal skills level, this year’s game has also shown how my FIRST friends support me in real life. On my latest Friday night game, four of my FRC friends from three teams, respectively, came out to support my sister and me. I found it hilarious to see all four of them up in the stands with the same facial features, clearly attempting to analyze the sport of basketball itself. The fact that my friends dragged themselves out of the tedious stages of design and early building truly showed me the spirit of both Coopertition and Gracious Professionalism. If you’re reading this, thanks guys.

I’m anxiously anticipating Comp season now, because I’m ready to see how this year’s game plays out on a mechanism and strategy level. I’m also very interested to see how similar the strategies and concepts that I use on the basketball court can be translated onto the field. After all, Kickoff may be like Christmas day, but nothing can be compared to the energy and excitement and exhilaration the night before the first competition.

Two Sides To Every Story

            From a guy’s perspective, it’s interesting having so many girls on the team. There’s so many new points of view (and the bot cave is so much cleaner), but there’s a lot more drama than with a mainly guys’ team. It’s definitely better, though, because guys (much as we hate to admit it) aren’t perfect. Between the better qualities of the guys and those of the girls, perfection is within the team’s grasp.

            It’s especially special working with the writing team. Usually there are about ten Bees in the CAD room, as we call it (though we don’t do CAD in here), three of which are male. The higher concentration of girls on the team this year has vastly increased the amount of writing that we can do during build season. That is not unusual; what is unusual is the high number of girls also working on building the robot.

            So how do I feel about the increasing proportion of girls on the team? I don’t mind. It seems to have improved the team, and that’s what I – and, I believe, most guys – care about. To bee concise, My point of view is: don’t worry, bee happy. It’s all going to bee sweet.

Scout