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HS Students Compete In FIRST Robotics Competition
A trio of teams have banded together to succeed in the 'FIRST Robotics Competition'. The teams Bobcat Robotics from South Windsor, Connecticut, Highrollers from Las Vegas, Nevada, and Gompei and the HERD from Worcester, Massachusetts combined to create a versatile robot geared to succeeding at a number of odd tasks. "These young people had six weeks to perfect their machines. And they had the enthusiasm of any athletic competition. From tie-dyed shirts to human hair dyed in school colors, competitors from 23 countries showed that math, science and brains can provide a lot of excitement ... Whether it is computer programming, wiring a motor or scouting rivals to develop strategy, students said the skills they develop often go beyond the contest. Clearly, the event has piqued the interest of major sponsors such as NASA, which will broadcast webcasts of the competitions."
But most people forget that, just like most teams forget what the actual prize is - by the time the finals roll around, the kids are so pumped to be doing this the actual prize is almost an afterthought.
Returning from our first FIRST regional in NH in 97, my boss asked me how it went. I told him I'd been teaching for 17 years, and this was the first time I had to sit down and put my head between my knees becasue I was about to pass out watching my students do something academic.
In retrospect, it is the single most effective thing I've seen in now 27 years of teaching to get kids to "do their darndest, no holds barred" like we always imagine kids should do in school.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
FIRST is ok, I did it for two years, but it isn't something that most /. readers would find terribly interesting to participate in.
Really, the name says it all. "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology". The program does all of that, and it is great for getting kids who would otherwise never have such opportunities involved in some fun stuff.
What FIRST is NOT however, is a robotics competition. The years I participated the rounds were 2-3 minutes long, and 20 to 30 seconds of that time were dedicated to autonomous operation. Most teams didn't even try to do anything during the "autonomous period", or they simply had their robot drive forward for 5 seconds then spin circles, or something similarly uninteresting. The "programming" was all done inside of a function that was provided, manipulating variables that were provided. No direct access to either input, or most particularly to output. Where the wiring was concerned the prescribed method was to plug all of the provided parts together in accordance with the manual. "Custom circuits" were sort of allowed, although they had to undergo a complicated inspection process, and were under no conditions whatsoever allowed to interface directly with any motors/actuators/etc. Basically no one used "custom circuits", except a few of the teams that had professional engineers building their "robots" for them while they stood on the sidelines.
One particular incident stands out in my memory: During a practice round just before the finals one of the teams we were teamed up with broke a mechanism on their robot's arm. But their "mentor" who had designed and built the robot was out to lunch. One of the kids was crying, while the rest of them just stood around with no idea what to do. We had to fix their robot for them.
Anyway, don't get me wrong, FIRST is a great way to inspire kids, one of our team members went from working at a fast food restaraunt to going off to some game design school (which I was skeptical of, but I talked to him the other day and it seems to be working out ok). But as a "robotics competition" FIRST is way overrated.
As a faculty member in engineering, I totally support FIRST robotics and FIRST lego league.
At the same time, it seems that the results skew toward pushing students into ME, not EE or CS (or my favorite, CHE).
Although the robotics could involve neat sensing and computing (EE) and algorithm development (CS) the students take home message is that all engineering is levers, gears, etc (ME). The high schoolers don't do much with the automation side of things (their adult mentors sort most of that out usually) and the middle school FIRST lego kids only do very simple programs (move forward 5 seconds, turn left, move forward again...).
At least it gives them some motivation to check out STEM careers.