Teaching BattleBots in High School

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."

Comments

I always loved that stuff

[192939495969798999]

Remember the pre-battle bots competitions at MIT? I wanted to go to MIT just to be able to do that!
sir_haxalot

Re:FIRST

[guttentag]

The unfortunate reality is that in most jobs (unless you work for the government), "gracious professionalism" is seen as a liability, while "ruthless marketing" is considered a virtue.

Corporations -- and even some public universities that behave like corporations -- worship the god of profit because at the end of the day, that's what pays everyone's salaries (actually that's a corporate myth, but it may as well be true because if you're not contributing to profitability you're likely to get "laid off"). They'd rather hire the kid who won $1,000 building a robotic monster that desroyed the competition than a FIRST national finalist, and many parents/educators are going to favor Battlebots over FIRST for that reason.

Other Programs

[OctaneZ]

Not everything has to be about robots!
When I was in Elementary and Middle Schools I was in a program called Odyssey of the Mind. This was a great program, with teams of 7 students, who would comptete in both a long and short program. For the long program (8 minutes), the team had a few months and a limited budget, and was allowed to choose one of the 5 problems to solve, Here are Last Years. There was alao a short program, where you were given a set of supplies, 1 min to brainstorm, and then 3 minutes to do it. Usually this challenge took the form of building something, such as the tallest twoer you could with toothpicks and shaving cream, that could survive a 5mph wind, something like that. It was a great program, and wasn't limited to engneering tyes.
There a programs like both OM and US FIRST, or the new robot wars in a lot of communitites, and whether you like their current format or not, we should all get involved. Many of us complain about the current state of education, and I have already seen people complaining about schools, and thanking vouchers. If you think these programs are great, get involved! If not get involved anyway and bring your experiences and incites to a younger group.
-OctaneZ

My High School had a Battlebots Team

[SirJimbo]

My former (just graduated) high school had a Battlebots IQ team. They put up a website , which details their robot, E2, and the competition. They did quite well, winning 6 in the double elimination format. I didn't participate in this, but I was involved in the Panasonic Creative Design Challenge, a robot competiton open to high school students in the State of New Jersey. I reccomend this competition to interested students, since I won a two grand scholarship that is going toward my EE degree.

Re:I would like to see.

[MsGeek]

Listen, if this had existed 30 years ago when I was in elementary school I wouldn't have the problems with mathematics that currently bedevil me.

Fundamentals are fine but they don't hold kids' attention spans. If you can get kids doing something FUN then show them how it relates to math and science, they'll soak it up big time.