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Teaching BattleBots in High School

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the but-sir-what's-this-button-for dept.

Some Guy writes: "We all know that everyone's favourite TV show is BattleBots on Comedy Central, Right? Well, a new program has started at my old high school that teaches BattleBots to kids. It's a truly engaging engineering program/curriculum that kids and school systems can use for credit. The program is called BattleBots IQ. Kids out there can get their teachers to go to battlebots training camps during the summer, and then have them teach battlebots to them as a class. I wish it was around when I was a kid."

7 of 174 comments (clear)

  1. FIRST by NASAKnight · · Score: 5, Informative

    I am involved in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology) program. The main difference between FIRST and battle bots is that battle bots focusses on money and ratings, while FIRST focuses on educating our nations youth. You can go to FIRST's website to find out more--it's a huge program, the stadium for nationls (which is rebuilt each year) is bigger than the Orlando Magic stadium (we even have teams from England, Canada, and Brazil). Also to note, the founder of FIRST (Dean Kamen) is the guy who invented the segway. Basically, I would much rather see more schools enter into FIRST than battle bots, because FIRST focuses on LEARNING and GRACIOUS PROFESIONLISM, while battle bots focusses on MONEY.

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    Fault loves the past, worry loves the future, but content enjoys the present.
    1. Re:FIRST by bok-choi · · Score: 2, Informative

      That's not always true. I joined a first-year team this year in high school, and we were lacking in funds. In fact, we didn't have any sponsors donating money until the competition was over, and then we only had 1 sponsor. We had 3 advisors, but the students did all the work. At the Pacific Northwest regional competition, we managed to place 5th out of about 40 teams, and also got the "Team spirit award." And I think the Microsoft-sponsored team didn't even make it to the top 8.

  2. New York Times article by theoramus · · Score: 2, Informative

    There was a story comparing BBIQ and FIRST a while back. It turns out that Dean Kamen (founder of first) doesn't really like battlebots. Go figure...

  3. Re:Dean Kamen by jbarket · · Score: 2, Informative

    Probably. I participated in FIRST my senior year in high school, and it was a hoot and all--but the reason I was interested was because of Robot Wars. While I think FIRST is probably more difficult to get started with--I mean, you're doing alot more with the robot than running somebody over, bashing them, etc--there's just something alot more appealing about being able to mindlessly punish your opponents.

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    jonathan barket
  4. RoboCode a great teaching tool for software... by (H)elix1 · · Score: 3, Informative

    For those trying to teach Java to kids, RoboCode is a great way to get them interested. They may not care about hello world in an applet, but pasting other folks tanks makes event handling fun.

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    +++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
  5. Robotics in education by octalgirl · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's great to have another player in robotics for education. The FIRST program was started by Dean Kamen, the Segway Human Transporter inventor, as a way to promote science and engineering to students. It starts with Lego robotics and has been around for several years. It's usually found in the K-8 grades and is a staple at MIT. Students learn how to write technical procedures, mechanical design, programming and engineering, and of course teamwork. For everything they do there is an attempt to align the tasks with other curriculum such as math, english and science. I volunteer for a middle school robotics club; a lot of work, but a lot of fun.

    For the high school students the FIRST program (usfirst.org) gets serious. Here students build real robots designed to meet a specific challenge. AutoCAD and other software companies provide software grants to high schools so the students are getting the real thing. Local businesses involved in engineering usually provide volunteers to mentor the students. It can cost 1 school over 30K to compete at this level. rhodewarrior.org is a site from a high school in RI that has been involved from the beginning and scores pretty well.

    The more the merrier, I think, when it comes to this kind of stuff. There has been some concern though, of making sure the students are truly meeting a challenge, and not just building something for the sake of going out and destroying things. The FIRST robotics programs usually involve designing a claw or figuring how many ping-pong balls you can pick up and get into a basket.

    If you find yourself wishing you had this when you were in school, then ask around at your local school district - folks are always looking for volunteers.

  6. Viva FIRST! by MacMasta · · Score: 2, Informative

    Dean Kamen & Woodie Flowers have their heads attached correctly - FIRST is the only way to go.
    People tend to ask me "So that's like battlebots, right?" when I tell them I'm a robotics nerd. I explain "No, battlebots has a serious flaw - it's easy to armor a robot, and very hard to build effective weapons within the rules. With FIRST, you have a goal - much a) harder and b) more useful in real life - problem solving and all that jazz.

    So, Viva FIRST - we'll have a team in every High School in the US (and in several other countries - Brazil & Canada, for example) for many years after battlebots is off the air and forgotten.

    ~Mac~