The summer courses are a week long, and involve having the teachers have thier own mini-robotics competition, and every single one leaving has given good reviews on the way out. The idea is that teachers who don't want to do it won't show up, but the teachers who want something new, and want to be part of this can show up, have a good time, and learn what is available to/help htem/ teach the course. it's not a required curriculum for the program, just a well put together starting point for the teachers.
as an exersise to the readers out there. go look up the injury records for school sports. Broken legs in soccer. Lacrosse, Rugby. Football. How many kids do you see walking down the hallway on crutches or with a cast and a sling on an arm? Ask them how they got it.
BBIQ stresses safety to the nth degree, and in it's first year (~50 teams) hasn't had a major injury. Shop tools are more dangerous. The control system of the robot (a required part from ifirobotics) is designed to be safe by default.
i did FIRST for 6 years, now i do battlebots. there is a big difference between the programs, and there is a big difference between BattleBots on TV and BattleBots IQ, which is a class.
FIRST/is/ about money. Joing costs $5000, each competition costs at lest $4000 more, plus rooms for the kids. Alot of teams don't let the kids build the robot. I've seen this! BBIQ REQUIRES that the kids do the work. The curriculum comes fully loaded with tests, diagrams, and vocabulary for everything from programming, circuits, material science, CAD, Machining, Gearbox design, Simple machines, mechanics, physics, power/weight considerations, and more.
FIRST doesn't even guarntee that you get to go to nationals anymore. you have to qualify of be on an even numbered team (odd alternate years)
FIRST is a good program. I am an engineer because of it. All i ask is that you guys read the website, check out the free lesson, then judge whether it's all about money.
You can't teach kids engineering AND build a good robot in 6 stressful weeks. I know people in first who are divorced because of the program. There are right ways to run it, but i don't think they've been decovered yet.
Give BBIQ a chance before writing it off as money-hungry. Comedy Central doesn't even televize BBIQ.
FIRST has been having issues lately with getting too big. and if you go look at battlbots IQ there is a full engineering curriculum there for science and engineering that isn't compressed into the "six weeks of hell" competition. battlebots IQ is designed to be a sports team, and a safe one at that. the point is not the robot. It's about teaching kids to build with education. they learn why they are building what they are building, not just building what a bunchof engineers tell them (if the engineers even let them do that)
I kind of like the fragmentation of the different standards. the old ones that are no good will fall away in time, but the new ones will always have advancements making them even more versatile.
For example, my PC has both an IDE expansion (7 IDE devices) and a SCSI card (2 devices) since they don't interfere with each other, i can have up to 24 devices, which is more than i could have with just IDE ATA expansion cards. I rather like the fact that my SCSI card can do 16 devices all on one cable where i have to add a new IDE channel for every 2 ATA drives i want. Both hap there ups and downs, but they are well mached ups and downs. if we only had one interface, then we would have downs that we couldn't get past.
Imagine if noone ever made the PCI interface, and we had to use hacked together ISA connections for all of our add-ons. Noone complains that a new AGP bus is coming out, and complaints are few for other new interfaces. Anything that is better than what we have is, well, better than what we have.
I can't wait to get more interfaces. But i will always use the old ones, in conjunction. (I happen to/like/ my Syquest SCSI cartridge drive)
Ah, but you would need a good conductor of heat to move the heat from the suit to the air (I.E. Run very quickly.) And the suit would simply gather heat from the sun ("You can have it in any color you want, as long as it's black")
Wrapping it around your fridge or keg would only transfer heat from your house into the keg. Bug engines, however, could use a good bit of cooling.
House insulation is just that.. insulation. this foam is heat conducting. which isn't so good at keeping the summers outside from attacking you or your mini server room.
they already charge for air and they charge even more for the removal of air!
I want a light sail propelled vehicle or something that doesn't require staying on the ground.
"There's always an easier way"
Gunnventions
http://www.geocities.com/gunnman17/
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The summer courses are a week long, and involve having the teachers have thier own mini-robotics competition, and every single one leaving has given good reviews on the way out. The idea is that teachers who don't want to do it won't show up, but the teachers who want something new, and want to be part of this can show up, have a good time, and learn what is available to /help htem/ teach the course. it's not a required curriculum for the program, just a well put together starting point for the teachers.
as an exersise to the readers out there. go look up the injury records for school sports. Broken legs in soccer. Lacrosse, Rugby. Football. How many kids do you see walking down the hallway on crutches or with a cast and a sling on an arm? Ask them how they got it.
BBIQ stresses safety to the nth degree, and in it's first year (~50 teams) hasn't had a major injury. Shop tools are more dangerous. The control system of the robot (a required part from ifirobotics) is designed to be safe by default.
i did FIRST for 6 years, now i do battlebots. there is a big difference between the programs, and there is a big difference between BattleBots on TV and BattleBots IQ, which is a class.
/is/ about money. Joing costs $5000, each competition costs at lest $4000 more, plus rooms for the kids. Alot of teams don't let the kids build the robot. I've seen this! BBIQ REQUIRES that the kids do the work. The curriculum comes fully loaded with tests, diagrams, and vocabulary for everything from programming, circuits, material science, CAD, Machining, Gearbox design, Simple machines, mechanics, physics, power/weight considerations, and more.
FIRST
FIRST doesn't even guarntee that you get to go to nationals anymore. you have to qualify of be on an even numbered team (odd alternate years)
FIRST is a good program. I am an engineer because of it. All i ask is that you guys read the website, check out the free lesson, then judge whether it's all about money.
You can't teach kids engineering AND build a good robot in 6 stressful weeks. I know people in first who are divorced because of the program. There are right ways to run it, but i don't think they've been decovered yet.
Give BBIQ a chance before writing it off as money-hungry. Comedy Central doesn't even televize BBIQ.
FIRST has been having issues lately with getting too big. and if you go look at battlbots IQ there is a full engineering curriculum there for science and engineering that isn't compressed into the "six weeks of hell" competition. battlebots IQ is designed to be a sports team, and a safe one at that. the point is not the robot. It's about teaching kids to build with education. they learn why they are building what they are building, not just building what a bunchof engineers tell them (if the engineers even let them do that)
I kind of like the fragmentation of the different standards. the old ones that are no good will fall away in time, but the new ones will always have advancements making them even more versatile.
/like/ my Syquest SCSI cartridge drive)
For example, my PC has both an IDE expansion (7 IDE devices) and a SCSI card (2 devices) since they don't interfere with each other, i can have up to 24 devices, which is more than i could have with just IDE ATA expansion cards. I rather like the fact that my SCSI card can do 16 devices all on one cable where i have to add a new IDE channel for every 2 ATA drives i want.
Both hap there ups and downs, but they are well mached ups and downs. if we only had one interface, then we would have downs that we couldn't get past.
Imagine if noone ever made the PCI interface, and we had to use hacked together ISA connections for all of our add-ons. Noone complains that a new AGP bus is coming out, and complaints are few for other new interfaces. Anything that is better than what we have is, well, better than what we have.
I can't wait to get more interfaces. But i will always use the old ones, in conjunction. (I happen to
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http://www.i9t.net
Ah, but you would need a good conductor of heat to move the heat from the suit to the air (I.E. Run very quickly.) And the suit would simply gather heat from the sun ("You can have it in any color you want, as long as it's black")
Wrapping it around your fridge or keg would only transfer heat from your house into the keg. Bug engines, however, could use a good bit of cooling.
House insulation is just that.. insulation. this foam is heat conducting. which isn't so good at keeping the summers outside from attacking you or your mini server room.
Damn, you beat me to 42.
they already charge for air and they charge even more for the removal of air! I want a light sail propelled vehicle or something that doesn't require staying on the ground. "There's always an easier way" Gunnventions http://www.geocities.com/gunnman17/