I emailed them this just now:
"Your use of an inappropriate and unfounded DMCA takedown notice has made my decision to purchase a new FPV camera for my R/C planes easier. It will not be a GoPro camera. Issuing a DMCA takedown notice for a bad review is childish and shows that you, as a company, have little faith in your own products if you are afraid that a negative review is going to hurt your business.
I actually own a GoPro camera that I have used for a couple of years and was planning on upgrading it soon. I will NOT upgrade it to another GoPro camera as I simply cannot do business with a company with a severe lack of morals and respect for their customers."
I also posted on their FB page.
Full disclosure - I am a teacher at a public middle school in an area with a 90% free and reduced lunch rate, high unemployment and 85% poor minority.
The problem is really how you evaluate teachers and schools, there are so many ways to take data and interpret that data. Do you give a standardized test and grade every student exactly the same and base a teacher’s performance off of the pass/fail ratio? If so, those teachers in buildings like mine which have traditionally low performing students will look bad. The cynics will say that it shouldn’t matter but I have many students who come to me from foreign countries who have had little to no formal education and do not speak English. Even after a few years in the United States their English is many time not proficient enough to pass a formal exam. The teachers in my building do a great job but I see more and more good teachers leaving our building for “better” students because the pressure is so high teaching traditionally low performing students and they don’t like being called a bad teacher when in fact they work their tails off to get the results they do.
Do you base a teacher’s performance off of the progress made by students while in that teacher’s classroom? Take a baseline score and see how they progress through the year. Critics of this method will argue that a failing grade is a failing grade no matter how much progress the students have made.
We have created a system in the US in which every child is treated exactly the same, assumed to be that same and assumed to be able to meet the exact same “high” standards. The realist among us realizes that this is far from the case. Because of this attitude that everyone is the same our high achieving students are being cheated because we teachers spend the majority of our time trying desperately to bring the low end up and ignore the high end while those in the middle are coasting along. We refuse as a nation to serve each student in the way they should be served. The trend in education today is to mix all students together in a classroom and this creates a nearly impossible scenario for a teacher who may have over thirty kids in a classroom (I know physics instructors in our district with over 40) in which they have to serve all levels of students at once.
Wow, 30 years! It is hard for me to believe it has been that long, the C64 and the C64 community was a HUGE part of my youth. I first got in to computing in the very late 70's or extremely early 80's. I learned BASIC before I even had computer and began writing text based BASIC games in a notebook before I received my first computer. I begged my parents for a computer for Christmas and in 1982 I received a Texas Instruments TI-99/4a with no storage device. I spent many hours typing in programs and not turning the machine off so my work was not wasted. Eventually I got a tape drive but the TI kicked the bucket about 8 months after I got it.
I desperately wanted a C64 with a 1541 disk drive but back then the whole package was close to $1000.00 and my parents couldn’t afford it. My dad suggested I get a job and made a deal with me; if I could earn 1/2 of the money he would front the other 1/2. I was 13-14 so job options were limited, we lived in an exceptionally large trailer park near the army base my dad was stationed at and they had LOTS of vacant lots with overgrown grass. They agreed to pay me $3.00 a yard to keep them mowed. I worked my tail off and by the end of the summer I had made more than enough money and was able to get the C64 and 1541 along with a printer, joysticks and a few games.
I LOVED that C64 and quickly fell into the C64 scene in whatever area we were in. I went to copy parties, we spent uncountable hours in my room playing C64 games and programming. Not long after I got my C64 I discovered BBS's and spent an enormous amount of hours calling BBS's to download the latest C64 games and programs and play the latest BBS games.
However, my first love was always programming. Although I collected a large number of C64 games, I spent most of my time exploring the machine. Delving in to it, learning everything it could do. I had the C64 programmer’s reference and lots of magazines and other materials and devoured them. Coding was my creative outlet, I was not a great writer, I couldn’t draw, but coding was how I explored my creative side and it absolutely lit me up, it fired something deep within me. I LOVED hitting problems and spending every waking hour trying to solve that problem and once you did, it was the greatest feeling.
Around 1985 I decided to code my own BBS software and spent a few years working on it and eventually got my own BBS up and running on dual 4040 CBM drives around 1988 or 89 in Norman, OK.
The C64 was special (along with many of the old 8-bit machines) in that you HAD to know something about the machine to operate it, and when you booted it up, it booted into a development environment, begging you to write your own programs. Todays machines don’t have that same appeal.
One thing that bothers me is that the C64 is largely ignored in the retelling of the history of the PC. The C64 absolutely demolished the sales of the Apple ][ and every other 8 bit machine of that era. Commodore beat Apple to market with their PET machine. The Apple ][ was not as big of a hit has most documentaries want you to believe. The C64 may have been more important in that era than the Apple ][ ever was but most retellings of that era leave the C64 out completely.
I am a teacher today (middle school science) and I look around and I don’t see kids excited about programming because most don’t realize you can. The machines that are on the market today come with no development environment, in addition, the complexities of coding in an object-oriented GUI world turn many kids away. There are easier options available, but you have to go out and actively search for them and as a young kid you might not find them.
I run a robotics club and teach kids as young as 6th grade C and they LOVE it. I started an interactive fiction club and taught kids TADS and they ATE IT UP!!! You would think in todays world of high definition 3D graphics kids would be bored to tears with a text adventure game but the
This isn't a back door or some secret agenda by some shadowy government agency. It is simply an IT tool to allow remote access to the machine. It is enabled ONCE and you must have cryptographic access to the machine in order to enable it. It is NOT enabled by default, it is a conscious decision to enable the feature made ONLY WHILE you have authorized cryptographic access. Once the machine is rebooted your back to normal.
The OP made it sound more ominous than needed when he said "unnamed customers". Why is everything on Slashdot a giant consipracy??
Wow, you really missed out on a LOT. A small 6" scope can show enough deepsky objects to keep someone busy for years, probably a lifetime. A large 10" dobsonian can give spectacular views of thousands of objects for less than $1,000.
I dont quite understand your comment of "To have fun, it started at 3000$" that makes no real sense to me. To say you can only have fun if you go big or get the latest toys is really quite sad. In fact, I know a great number of amateur astronomers and in general, the older they (and I) get the less attracted to big scopes and cool toys and gizmos we are - we realize they are unimportant. Sure, we all desire big scopes and lust after giant aperture but we realize that it is not needed to have fun and enjoy the beauty of the night sky.
Building your own scope as a first scope is NOT recommended. It is a long and precise procedure and very easy to mess up.
I am going to have to disagree with your advice about ignoring binoculars.
Binos are one of the single best instruments for observing the night sky, they give great wide-field views an d many objects look best when viewed through a good pair of binoculars. In addition binos allow you learn the night sky a little better and a little faster than with a telescope with a narrow field of view. Ive been involved in amateur astronomy for 20+ years and I ALWAYS carry my binos with me.
I am getting in on this discussion a bit late, I hope my comments help.
1. Go and grab a few entry level books on naked eye astronomy and astronomy with backyard telescopes. Grab or subscribe to Astronomy Magazine and Sky and Telescope. Spend time LEARNING the night sky, learn the major constellations and features of the night sky. So many people do not take the time to learn the night sky before jumping in and buying a scope, they get frustrated soon after because they cannot find any object and quit the hobby. Believe me, this more than anything will ease your pains when moving up to binoculars and a telescope.
2. Buy some decent 7X50 - 15X80 binoculars. I would not recommend anything above 15-20 X 80 and would rather see someone stick to a decent pair of 7-10 X 50 binos. Start learning to find bright deepsky objects with the binos. An amazing number of objects are viewable with simple 7X50 binos. I used my binos far more than my 10" Eq. Newt when starting out. They are light, easy to take with you and easy to use. This will also help you learn the night sky.
3. Buy a dobsonian style scope that YOU WILL USE. In other words don't go too big on aperture. A big scope is great and can give amazing views but only if you use it. My first big scope was a 10" German equatorial mounted Newtonian. It was big and VERY heavy. However, I was young and only had to drag it out to the backyard. Setting it up wasn't too much of a problem - but breaking it down at 3am after a long night of observing was a pain. Sixteen years later I still have the scope but it doesn't get much use. I now live in Dallas and have to drive long distances to find dark skies. I just bought a smaller scope to replace it.
You can get GREAT dob style scopes from places like Orion Telescopes for well under your budget. You can even get models that have a computer that aid you in pointing the scope and will greatly reduce your frustration level in finding "faint nothings" in the sky.
You can even do some photography with a good dob. You will need to grab a webcam that is easily modified. The Phillips Toucam and SPC900 are the most popular as they use CCD chips instead of CMOS imagers. Get an adapter to slide into your focuser (http://webcaddy.com.au/astro/adapter.htm) and you are ready to start imaging the moon, planets and sun (with appropriate filter). You will not be able to guide but you can take short movies of the objects and use Registax to split the movie into frames and stack and average your frames. It does a GREAT job. I use it to take images of the moon and planets with an untracked and unguided scope.
Astrophotography of deep sky objects is out of your budget range for now. However, you may want to buy a scope that can be easily converted to astrophotography at a later date as you add equipment. I cannot recommend the Meade LXD75 SN-6 or LXD75 SN-8 enough. The SN-6 is within your current budget and the SN-8 is just outside of it. They are good visual scopes and are great astrophoto scopes. They are on decent enough mounts and have goto capability. Do NOT get the SN-10, its weight is just a bit much for the LXD75 mount to handle for astrophotography.
Right now, if you look you can find closeouts of the Meade DSI CCD camera for around $100.00. Great entry level camera, it is a bit outdated now but you cannot beat the price.
A great website is http://www.cloudynights.com/ - Tremendous user support forums, if you have a question, someone on there can answer it.
Id like to continue my post but I am out of time - Hope this helps.
I am a middle school science teacher and I have to say that I am very disappointed with the quality of science education and science teachers in general. Most science teachers I know are not science oriented people or come from non-science backgrounds and it really bothers me. I honestly believe that if you are going to teach science you should be passionate about what you teach, you should know the subject, even eat and breathe it. It disappoints me when teachers do not have a passion for their subject. In addition to teaching, I run an after school robotics program, a rocketry club, and a strategy board game club. I don't expect every teacher to stay after school but it looks bad when the official work day is 8-4 and you get to work at 8:00am and you are running kids over getting out of the building at 4:00pm.
In addition, a large percentage of teachers LIKE the fact that every single teacher (or close to it) that has been working the same number of years earns the same amount of money. It really pains me sometimes but I didn't do this for the money but it still bothers me to know that the people who barely scrape by in the classroom and run kids down in the parking lot trying to get to their car at 4:00 make the same salary as me.
Before all the knee jerk reactions start (too late for that) stating this is unfair or a travesty of justice, it is not. This is simply an out of court settlement for a civil case. Anyone could have done the same thing.
For example: My neighbor wants to sue me in civil court for some perceived wrong doing. I go to my neighbor and say "Listen, instead of dragging this thing to court why don't I pay you X sum of money and agree to not do it again." My neighbor could accept the settlement and be done with it.
If what I had done was also criminal then the appropriate authorities could still pursue criminal charges against me, but my neighbor would be finished with me.
I got a great laugh out of that!
I assume they mean higher education professionals in that report, though I did not read it, I only looked at the data.
I make $40K and have been at this for 10 years.
You are correct, we actually do agree on most points.
I agree that elementary education is severely lacking in most respects. It REALLY disappoints me that my kids come to me in middle school with almost no science education at all. Our district has taken an active interest in improving elementary education by forcing elementary teachers to teach science. Now, when I get kids from the elementary they at least have some science information and it continues to get better each year. The elementary teachers do not like it because it is forcing them to do science and math, which they abhor.
On to your other point about extra curricular activities becoming more important than curricular activities. I agree with you on that point in a large way. Football is king here in Texas and I have seen school districts pour millions into the football program while ignoring the fact that they need textbooks and other basic necessities. As a teacher I will always make the minimum district salary, no matter how well my students perform. However, if I were a football coach I could easily negotiate my salary, we have a high school coach in our district that makes over 100K per year. As I said before, I run a very successful and recognized robotics program at our school and I have to beg and plead for any money at all from or district or from private corporations while the football team got all new uniforms and pads this year. Our football team practices 5 days a week, before, after, and during school and God forbid if something interferes with it.
Your point about normalizing children is so very true and I hate it with a passion. However, I really believe that hiring more GOOD teachers in order to reduce class size could go a long way in helping the problem.
Once again, you are correct in that the vast majority of the problem lies is socio-economic. I cannot tell you the number of times I have called a parent wanting to discuss their child and the fact that their child is interfering with the education of others by being disruptive and have been told "I cant handle him at home, he is your problem at school. Deal with it."
Having been in the education business for awhile I take exception to your comment that school systems are already being pumped full of cash. I assure you that they are not. Most schools I have taught in are woefully short on basic supplies; instead most teachers have to buy their own supplies. I am a science teacher and if I want to do cool science labs then most of the time it is up to me to buy those supplies. The $800.00 budget our science department gets (10+ science teachers in the building) just does not go far.
Most schools I have been in are short on textbooks and those textbooks are usually outdated and worn out. If a teacher wants to offer something cool and educational to their students we usually are told there just isn't any money. I run a highly successful robotics club in my middle school which was largely funded in the beginning out of my own pocket. I also run a rocketry club after school which, once again, is largely funded by me. I spent my summer school paycheck on a complete hybrid rocket motor system and ground support equipment to use with the kids.
I can certainly tell you that the massive influx of money is NOT going towards my salary. Everyone I know with a college degree earns generally far more than I do. Am I complaining, yes, but it is the life I chose to live. I knew what I was getting into from the beginning, salary wise.
This brings me to my main point If we want to better the educational system in America we need to raise teachers' salary (among other things). As a teacher I am generally disappointed by the people attracted to education. I am a science geek, I live, eat, and breathe science, however, most science teachers I know (especially at the middle school level) are NOT science oriented people. They are not passionate about science and this disappoints me greatly. However, many of the people I know who are passionate about science and I think would make good teachers do not want to take a massive cut in pay. The argument is that the low pay attracts people who really WANT to be teachers. I do not wholly buy that argument.
In general, I think the educational system that we have in America is a very good system and that most of the problems are not intrinsic to the educational system. For example, I teach in a school that is over 79% economically disadvantaged. My students have very little support at home and I get little to no support from the parents. My students are mal-nourished and under cared for. In general when I have problems with a student I cannot get hold of the parents, much less get support from them.
I can tell you, from my own observations that the single greatest factor that influences whether a student gets a good education or not is the parents. The students that I have that do very well in school, are not behavior problems and are active in the school community have parents that are actively involved in the their life and supportive of them. The students that do not do well in school, are constant behavior problems and have little to no involvement in the school community have parents that simply do not care to be involved in their child's life and general well-being and expect the school to be their baby sitter. It does not their socio-economic or racial background.
"Are parents involved because they and their kids are motivated and smart, or are the kids motivated and smart because their parents are involved? You can't say; neither can I."
This is an intersting question and one that I have wondered about for a long time. Who knows, maybe one day I will do a PhD thesis on the subject.
However, I think I can say that from my observations it is normally students from a solid background that do well. In other words, the kids are great kids because of the parents and not the other way around. I can say this simply because it appears to run in families. Time after time I see solid kids produced from the same parents and kids that are trouble makers produced from the same parents.
I will also say something else that may be a bit controversial. The kids that I see that are the best performing students who are rarely trouble makers also come from two parent homes. In my LEAP classes close to 100% of the students come from two parent homes. Coincidence? Maybe.
"I call BS" "This is coming from someone who teaches the "hard-to-reach ones-ones with autism, mr, cognitive delays, as well as behavior problems."
Ok, I'm going to have to call BS then also. Your type of student does not have relevance to my type of student. I will admit that I was probably wrong to extrapolate my student population to the entire US. My school is in a poor area of North Dallas. Nearly 80% of our population is Hispanic, of which nearly all of those moved here from a foreign country and English is not their native tongue. Gangs and drugs are a growing problem; we have to shut down our bathrooms nearly everyday because of graffiti and vandalism. A great many of our parents do not speak English and have no high school degree. There is not an emphasis on education at home.
However, I will still say that a student that has active parental involvement in their lives has a MUCH higher chance of being successful in school and not being a behavior problem.
"The trouble is that many teachers ( and I don't know you personally so I can't say it applies to you) don't really teach-they present. "
I will agree. Being a science teacher I HATE the way science is taught across our country. Science is not a bunch of facts to be learned in a book. Science is a process, a journey, an exploration to discovery. We turn it into facts in a book and worksheets. I also really hate that most science teachers are not science oriented people. I meet science teachers with language arts degrees, home economics degrees, degrees in physical education but not too many with an honest to goodness degree in science education. I got into science education because I ALWAYS knew I would be a science teacher, I have always loved science and been passionate about it. The very first book I bought with my own money was a used college astronomy textbook when I was about six. I still have that book.
Science should be hands on and is the EASIEST subject to make hands on. In fact, earlier today one of my classes explored optics and the concepts of refraction and reflection with laser diodes and various prisms. We do labs or explorations nearly everyday. Many students tell me they have never learned so much in their lives in a single class or that science was actually fun. This is because they have previously been exposed to "science" by reading textbooks, memorizing definitions and doing worksheets.
Unfortunately you are living in an idealized world.
You cannot continuously suspend a student, there and laws and regulations that regulate how long a student can be outside of the classroom and what offenses are punishable by suspension. On top of that, remember this, every day that kid spends outside of a classroom is a day that he is not learning. When it comes time for standardized testing, you and your school are still directly responsible for the performance of that student. It does not matter that he is a lazy, good for nothing trouble maker that may even enjoy causing trouble and mayhem, you are responsible for his performance on that test.
Do I think it is fair? No, but it is the way it is right now. A few years ago we had a student get suspended in the 6th grade and was later taken to juvenile justice and spent two years in JV and returned to us just 1 week before the TAKS writing test. He failed it in a large way but his scores counted against us. A week later he was sent to Juvenile Justice for distributing and had to take the April TAKS test in jail. He failed them, but his test scores counted against us because we are his school of record, even though in the last 3 years he had spent only a few weeks inside our walls.
Hopefully this reply does not come to late as I did not have a chance to reply yesterday.
"1) Would you advocate funneling monies away from sports/music/etc. and back into basic education (English, history, science, math)?"
It depends; I am a supporter of athletics and the arts, having participated in both in my middle school and high school years. However, a balance must be achieved. Here in Texas high school football is a very big deal and it is not uncommon to see school districts funnel huge amounts of money on football stadiums and football programs while their classroom teachers suffer with inadequate materials. That is simply a crime. Therefore, I would say that as long as the program is balanced, adds to the students experience and does not take away from the regular education then I am all for it.
"2) How do you feel about the tenure system? Is it good or bad to have a job for life? How do you feel about teacher evaluations? On what criteria should they be performed?"
Any system that can keep a bad employee in place and protected is a bad system. In my district we do not have a tenure system and it does not bother me in the least. I know that as long as I do a good job abnd keep my nose clean I will continue to have a job. I know that when budget cuts come around I will not be on the list of people to cut because I work my tail off and I do that best job I can.
Teachers should be evaluated on their performance in the classroom weighed against the students they have. More on this later when I talk about standardized testing.
"3) What do you think about standardized testing? Do you think it causes people to "teach to the test," rather than learning real material, or do you think that it is a useful tool to evaluate student progress?"
Personally, I do not have a problem with standardized testing. It is a great tool to evaluate yourself and your students. Our district gives what are called "benchmark" exams every couple of months so that we can see how we and our students are doing. I think the tests are great because I can look online and see exactly how my students did and compare them to every other student in the district and I can compare myself to other teachers in the district. I can look and say "Wow, 85% of my students failed objective 4. I need to reevaluate how I am teaching objective 4". Or I can say "Wow, Mrs. so-and-so scored a 95% passing rate on objective 11, I am going to talk to her about how she teaches objective 11."
Using the this system I can even focus in on individual students and say "Wow, Bob Smith did not do well on objective 3." It is a wonderful system and I love it, it gives me direct feedback on my performance and the performance of my students.
However, the system cannot be used to compare teachers and this is my big hang up with standardized tests and how they are used. You cannot say "Wow, Mr. Culp scored a 97% overall passing rate while Mrs. Smith only scored a 57% passing rate." You are comparing apples and oranges. As I said before I teach 6th and 8th grade science in our districts LEAP program which is a program for the extremely gifted. I do also teach a couple of regular ed. classes but the 3 LEAP classes skew my results well above the district average and it is an unfair comparison.
The same goes for comparing schools. My school is an economically disadvantaged school with nearly 76% of the students on free and reduced lunch, 1/3 of the student population is ESL (English as a Second Language) and another 1/3 were ESL students at one time. There is a large gang and drug problem in the area. To our north but still in our district is a middle school located in a mainly white upper middle class area. They have a huge advantage over us in terms of overall support and money and they do not have the extreme behavior problems we have. I talk to teachers from that school and they talk about the biggest problem being dress code violations when just 30 minutes ago I kindly asked a stud
This is coming from the perspective of a middle school science teacher. Our educational system is not to blame, it is not perfect, but it is a good one. Our society is to blame for the lowering importance of education and the failure of students to succeed. . This post is not meant to be an explanation of why these events our happening, only a post of my observations.
In my school and in my teaching career I meet very few teachers who do not care passionately about education and work as hard as they can to educate students in their chosen area of education. Yes, there are exceptions, but they are few and far between. Those teachers who are bad teachers generally get run out of the business.
You cannot properly educate a child who simply does not want to be educated and has no driving force behind him. Students today simply do not care about their education. Nearly all of the students who are discipline problems have one thing in common, they have apathetic parents. One of the most frustrating things for me as a teacher is dealing with parents who simply do not care. I have been told "Hey, he is your problem while he is at school" by parents. I also have difficulty in finding parents in many cases. When the parents do not care enough to discipline their child at home for behaviors at school there is absolutely nothing you can do to the child at school. What most people do not realize is that teachers have no power over students except that power which students give to the teachers. If you suspend a student it does no good if he doesn't care and his parents do not care. Once the suspension is over he is back at school disrupting the education of students who are actually there to learn something.
This would not be so bad if students and parents like this were the exception; however, they are quickly becoming the norm in today's schools. Most parents simply want to send their kids off to school and forget about them for the time they are there. I spend my days battling rude, disruptive and apathetic students rather than teaching. The sad thing is, that these students will grow up without a good education and then blame the "system" for not giving it to them. I have students from other countries where a free education is not guaranteed to you and their school s do not have textbooks, computers, even running water who marvel at the American students and wonder why they are pissing this wonderful opportunity for a free education away.
I also teach another class of students, our district has a special program for the brightest of the bright. All students who qualify for the program come to our school where the curriculum is accelerated and depth and complexity is added to suit the needs of these students. I can tell you the main difference in these students as compared with the regular students, without fail they have parents who are actively involved in their lives and truly care about them. I have no difficulty getting in contact with these parents; in fact, they will usually contact me first. These parents are the ones who actually show up to parent-teacher conference night, open house and attend games and concerts their kids are in. These parents take an active role in their child's life. These parents go out of their way to accommodate their children.
Do not take this as meaning I hate my job, I love my job and can never see me doing anything else. However, it can be extremely frustrating at times. I have much more to say on this subject and did not come anywhere close to voicing my actual and complete views on the subject, however, it is time to go to work. Perhaps tonight when I get home I will expand on the post.
Although I cannot agree with what you said about FIRST as I have never participated in FIRST or FIRST Lego League. However, I have heard some bad things about FIRST and I have seriously looked into FLL. I was not impressed.
I run an after school robotics club at my middle school with around 40-45 student members. We meet nearly everyday after school and even during the summer. I teach the students to program in C and try to teach good engineering practices. We participate in Botball.
Botball is an absolutely incredible event for middle school and high school aged students. The game is challenging and fun. The students have 6 weeks to build and design robots to score points on a 4X8 board. The students use C and the Lego RCX and Handyboard.
I like Botball because the robots MUST be fully autonomous for the entire duration of the game. The students also get to use a much more advanced controller and sensors with the Handyboard.
Another thing I like is that coaches are NOT allowed to build and program the robots. I spend most of the year teaching C and robotics design. I try to instill in my students the KISS principle and good coding, design and implementation practices. However, when Botball comes around I take a high level coaching position. I still teach, I give advice, I answer questions and provide direction and framework for the students. I do not program the bots, I do not build them and I do not tell them what strategy to take.
I think Botball is the best middle school/high school robotics program around. We fielded two teams this year and took them to the Oklahoma Regional in Feb (we are actually in the N Dallas area) and our two middle school teams dominated the competition taking home 11 trophies and awards including 1st and 2nd place overall in the region.
The cost is less than FIRST but more than FLL. However, the money can be made. I just returned from a garage sale fund raiser our club put on and we made $1500.00 today. There are also tons of grants available, last year Verizon gave us $6,250.00. The money is there if you look.
I do not think Botball is perfect, I think they can make some improvements to make the challenge less daunting to new teams. Most teams arrive at the competition with robots that do not work properly. A little more time to prepare might be better. Another thing I hate to see is sponsors and coaches that simply give the kit to the students and say "Have fun guys, see you in six weeks." I remember watching an interview being conducted with a sponsor who did not know how to score points, she did not know what programming language the students used or anything about the competition. I supose being a warm body in the classroom and letting the students work is better than not having anyone to sponsor the team and therefore the students not getting to participate. However, as a sponsor you should at least make an effort to learn the game rules or maybe hunt down a mentor!!
I hope that Botball gets bigger and attracts more participants in future years as, like I said before, it is the best robotics competition going, hands down.
I would like to do FIRST as it looks extremelly interesting. However, we are just a middle school and FIRST is High School only. Botball was a huge amount of fun and for the age level of the kids was very challenging.
Next year I plan on introducing the returning students to microcontrollers and basic circuit design. Within a few years I will have many of the kids that started in my robot clubs go on to high school and then we may be able to form a FIRST club using those kids.
You can see our robot club at http://www.cfbisd.edu/schools/per/botball/index.ht ml
I am a teacher in a public Middle school in Carrollton, TX. I started a robotics club this year in order teach students robotics design, programming, teamwork and other skills. We use Lego Mindstorms and Handyboards in our club and program them in C, specifically Interactive C and Not Quite C (NQC). We also have one system running Linux as both IC and NQC are available for Linux.
My administration is very supportive of the club, providing money and other suppport through the year. The main difficulties in the club was raising money for the equipment and to pay the fee for the Botball competition we entered.
I applied for a grant with our local Educational Foundation and received $1,000 to fund the initital purchase of equipment. Your school district probably has an educational foundation that provides grants to teachers and students. Find a willing faculty member to sponsor your club and help you find funding and support.
Before I received that grant I began teaching the students C using a free Windows compiler I found on the net. It was perfect as it allowed the students to write Windows console applications without worrying about the code over head of a real Windows application. You can find the Bloodshed complier here
After we got our initial equipment I searched the net for grants available to public school teachers to fund technology applications. I applied for an $8,500 grant from The Verizon Foundation. This money will be used to pay our Botball entry fees for next year, and buy more advanced equipment for the students returning next year. I have had so much interest in the robotics club that I will probably have three clubs next year.
Slashdot Mirror
I emailed them this just now: "Your use of an inappropriate and unfounded DMCA takedown notice has made my decision to purchase a new FPV camera for my R/C planes easier. It will not be a GoPro camera. Issuing a DMCA takedown notice for a bad review is childish and shows that you, as a company, have little faith in your own products if you are afraid that a negative review is going to hurt your business. I actually own a GoPro camera that I have used for a couple of years and was planning on upgrading it soon. I will NOT upgrade it to another GoPro camera as I simply cannot do business with a company with a severe lack of morals and respect for their customers." I also posted on their FB page.
Full disclosure - I am a teacher at a public middle school in an area with a 90% free and reduced lunch rate, high unemployment and 85% poor minority.
The problem is really how you evaluate teachers and schools, there are so many ways to take data and interpret that data. Do you give a standardized test and grade every student exactly the same and base a teacher’s performance off of the pass/fail ratio? If so, those teachers in buildings like mine which have traditionally low performing students will look bad. The cynics will say that it shouldn’t matter but I have many students who come to me from foreign countries who have had little to no formal education and do not speak English. Even after a few years in the United States their English is many time not proficient enough to pass a formal exam. The teachers in my building do a great job but I see more and more good teachers leaving our building for “better” students because the pressure is so high teaching traditionally low performing students and they don’t like being called a bad teacher when in fact they work their tails off to get the results they do.
Do you base a teacher’s performance off of the progress made by students while in that teacher’s classroom? Take a baseline score and see how they progress through the year. Critics of this method will argue that a failing grade is a failing grade no matter how much progress the students have made.
We have created a system in the US in which every child is treated exactly the same, assumed to be that same and assumed to be able to meet the exact same “high” standards. The realist among us realizes that this is far from the case. Because of this attitude that everyone is the same our high achieving students are being cheated because we teachers spend the majority of our time trying desperately to bring the low end up and ignore the high end while those in the middle are coasting along. We refuse as a nation to serve each student in the way they should be served. The trend in education today is to mix all students together in a classroom and this creates a nearly impossible scenario for a teacher who may have over thirty kids in a classroom (I know physics instructors in our district with over 40) in which they have to serve all levels of students at once.
I will step off my soapbox now.
Wow, 30 years! It is hard for me to believe it has been that long, the C64 and the C64 community was a HUGE part of my youth. I first got in to computing in the very late 70's or extremely early 80's. I learned BASIC before I even had computer and began writing text based BASIC games in a notebook before I received my first computer. I begged my parents for a computer for Christmas and in 1982 I received a Texas Instruments TI-99/4a with no storage device. I spent many hours typing in programs and not turning the machine off so my work was not wasted. Eventually I got a tape drive but the TI kicked the bucket about 8 months after I got it.
I desperately wanted a C64 with a 1541 disk drive but back then the whole package was close to $1000.00 and my parents couldn’t afford it. My dad suggested I get a job and made a deal with me; if I could earn 1/2 of the money he would front the other 1/2. I was 13-14 so job options were limited, we lived in an exceptionally large trailer park near the army base my dad was stationed at and they had LOTS of vacant lots with overgrown grass. They agreed to pay me $3.00 a yard to keep them mowed. I worked my tail off and by the end of the summer I had made more than enough money and was able to get the C64 and 1541 along with a printer, joysticks and a few games.
I LOVED that C64 and quickly fell into the C64 scene in whatever area we were in. I went to copy parties, we spent uncountable hours in my room playing C64 games and programming. Not long after I got my C64 I discovered BBS's and spent an enormous amount of hours calling BBS's to download the latest C64 games and programs and play the latest BBS games.
However, my first love was always programming. Although I collected a large number of C64 games, I spent most of my time exploring the machine. Delving in to it, learning everything it could do. I had the C64 programmer’s reference and lots of magazines and other materials and devoured them. Coding was my creative outlet, I was not a great writer, I couldn’t draw, but coding was how I explored my creative side and it absolutely lit me up, it fired something deep within me. I LOVED hitting problems and spending every waking hour trying to solve that problem and once you did, it was the greatest feeling.
Around 1985 I decided to code my own BBS software and spent a few years working on it and eventually got my own BBS up and running on dual 4040 CBM drives around 1988 or 89 in Norman, OK.
The C64 was special (along with many of the old 8-bit machines) in that you HAD to know something about the machine to operate it, and when you booted it up, it booted into a development environment, begging you to write your own programs. Todays machines don’t have that same appeal.
One thing that bothers me is that the C64 is largely ignored in the retelling of the history of the PC. The C64 absolutely demolished the sales of the Apple ][ and every other 8 bit machine of that era. Commodore beat Apple to market with their PET machine. The Apple ][ was not as big of a hit has most documentaries want you to believe. The C64 may have been more important in that era than the Apple ][ ever was but most retellings of that era leave the C64 out completely.
I am a teacher today (middle school science) and I look around and I don’t see kids excited about programming because most don’t realize you can. The machines that are on the market today come with no development environment, in addition, the complexities of coding in an object-oriented GUI world turn many kids away. There are easier options available, but you have to go out and actively search for them and as a young kid you might not find them.
I run a robotics club and teach kids as young as 6th grade C and they LOVE it. I started an interactive fiction club and taught kids TADS and they ATE IT UP!!! You would think in todays world of high definition 3D graphics kids would be bored to tears with a text adventure game but the
This isn't a back door or some secret agenda by some shadowy government agency. It is simply an IT tool to allow remote access to the machine. It is enabled ONCE and you must have cryptographic access to the machine in order to enable it. It is NOT enabled by default, it is a conscious decision to enable the feature made ONLY WHILE you have authorized cryptographic access. Once the machine is rebooted your back to normal.
The OP made it sound more ominous than needed when he said "unnamed customers". Why is everything on Slashdot a giant consipracy??
RTFA.
Wow, you really missed out on a LOT. A small 6" scope can show enough deepsky objects to keep someone busy for years, probably a lifetime. A large 10" dobsonian can give spectacular views of thousands of objects for less than $1,000.
I dont quite understand your comment of "To have fun, it started at 3000$" that makes no real sense to me. To say you can only have fun if you go big or get the latest toys is really quite sad. In fact, I know a great number of amateur astronomers and in general, the older they (and I) get the less attracted to big scopes and cool toys and gizmos we are - we realize they are unimportant. Sure, we all desire big scopes and lust after giant aperture but we realize that it is not needed to have fun and enjoy the beauty of the night sky.
Building your own scope as a first scope is NOT recommended. It is a long and precise procedure and very easy to mess up.
I am going to have to disagree with your advice about ignoring binoculars. Binos are one of the single best instruments for observing the night sky, they give great wide-field views an d many objects look best when viewed through a good pair of binoculars. In addition binos allow you learn the night sky a little better and a little faster than with a telescope with a narrow field of view. Ive been involved in amateur astronomy for 20+ years and I ALWAYS carry my binos with me.
I am getting in on this discussion a bit late, I hope my comments help.
1. Go and grab a few entry level books on naked eye astronomy and astronomy with backyard telescopes. Grab or subscribe to Astronomy Magazine and Sky and Telescope. Spend time LEARNING the night sky, learn the major constellations and features of the night sky. So many people do not take the time to learn the night sky before jumping in and buying a scope, they get frustrated soon after because they cannot find any object and quit the hobby. Believe me, this more than anything will ease your pains when moving up to binoculars and a telescope.
2. Buy some decent 7X50 - 15X80 binoculars. I would not recommend anything above 15-20 X 80 and would rather see someone stick to a decent pair of 7-10 X 50 binos. Start learning to find bright deepsky objects with the binos. An amazing number of objects are viewable with simple 7X50 binos. I used my binos far more than my 10" Eq. Newt when starting out. They are light, easy to take with you and easy to use. This will also help you learn the night sky.
3. Buy a dobsonian style scope that YOU WILL USE. In other words don't go too big on aperture. A big scope is great and can give amazing views but only if you use it. My first big scope was a 10" German equatorial mounted Newtonian. It was big and VERY heavy. However, I was young and only had to drag it out to the backyard. Setting it up wasn't too much of a problem - but breaking it down at 3am after a long night of observing was a pain. Sixteen years later I still have the scope but it doesn't get much use. I now live in Dallas and have to drive long distances to find dark skies. I just bought a smaller scope to replace it.
You can get GREAT dob style scopes from places like Orion Telescopes for well under your budget. You can even get models that have a computer that aid you in pointing the scope and will greatly reduce your frustration level in finding "faint nothings" in the sky.
You can even do some photography with a good dob. You will need to grab a webcam that is easily modified. The Phillips Toucam and SPC900 are the most popular as they use CCD chips instead of CMOS imagers. Get an adapter to slide into your focuser (http://webcaddy.com.au/astro/adapter.htm) and you are ready to start imaging the moon, planets and sun (with appropriate filter). You will not be able to guide but you can take short movies of the objects and use Registax to split the movie into frames and stack and average your frames. It does a GREAT job. I use it to take images of the moon and planets with an untracked and unguided scope.
Astrophotography of deep sky objects is out of your budget range for now. However, you may want to buy a scope that can be easily converted to astrophotography at a later date as you add equipment. I cannot recommend the Meade LXD75 SN-6 or LXD75 SN-8 enough. The SN-6 is within your current budget and the SN-8 is just outside of it. They are good visual scopes and are great astrophoto scopes. They are on decent enough mounts and have goto capability. Do NOT get the SN-10, its weight is just a bit much for the LXD75 mount to handle for astrophotography.
Right now, if you look you can find closeouts of the Meade DSI CCD camera for around $100.00. Great entry level camera, it is a bit outdated now but you cannot beat the price.
A great website is http://www.cloudynights.com/ - Tremendous user support forums, if you have a question, someone on there can answer it.
Id like to continue my post but I am out of time - Hope this helps.
I have to make this short and brief...
I am a middle school science teacher and I have to say that I am very disappointed with the quality of science education and science teachers in general. Most science teachers I know are not science oriented people or come from non-science backgrounds and it really bothers me. I honestly believe that if you are going to teach science you should be passionate about what you teach, you should know the subject, even eat and breathe it. It disappoints me when teachers do not have a passion for their subject. In addition to teaching, I run an after school robotics program, a rocketry club, and a strategy board game club. I don't expect every teacher to stay after school but it looks bad when the official work day is 8-4 and you get to work at 8:00am and you are running kids over getting out of the building at 4:00pm.
In addition, a large percentage of teachers LIKE the fact that every single teacher (or close to it) that has been working the same number of years earns the same amount of money. It really pains me sometimes but I didn't do this for the money but it still bothers me to know that the people who barely scrape by in the classroom and run kids down in the parking lot trying to get to their car at 4:00 make the same salary as me.
Before all the knee jerk reactions start (too late for that) stating this is unfair or a travesty of justice, it is not. This is simply an out of court settlement for a civil case. Anyone could have done the same thing.
For example: My neighbor wants to sue me in civil court for some perceived wrong doing. I go to my neighbor and say "Listen, instead of dragging this thing to court why don't I pay you X sum of money and agree to not do it again." My neighbor could accept the settlement and be done with it.
If what I had done was also criminal then the appropriate authorities could still pursue criminal charges against me, but my neighbor would be finished with me.
That is all that happened here, nothing more.
I got a great laugh out of that! I assume they mean higher education professionals in that report, though I did not read it, I only looked at the data. I make $40K and have been at this for 10 years.
You are correct, we actually do agree on most points.
I agree that elementary education is severely lacking in most respects. It REALLY disappoints me that my kids come to me in middle school with almost no science education at all. Our district has taken an active interest in improving elementary education by forcing elementary teachers to teach science. Now, when I get kids from the elementary they at least have some science information and it continues to get better each year. The elementary teachers do not like it because it is forcing them to do science and math, which they abhor.
On to your other point about extra curricular activities becoming more important than curricular activities. I agree with you on that point in a large way. Football is king here in Texas and I have seen school districts pour millions into the football program while ignoring the fact that they need textbooks and other basic necessities. As a teacher I will always make the minimum district salary, no matter how well my students perform. However, if I were a football coach I could easily negotiate my salary, we have a high school coach in our district that makes over 100K per year. As I said before, I run a very successful and recognized robotics program at our school and I have to beg and plead for any money at all from or district or from private corporations while the football team got all new uniforms and pads this year. Our football team practices 5 days a week, before, after, and during school and God forbid if something interferes with it.
Your point about normalizing children is so very true and I hate it with a passion. However, I really believe that hiring more GOOD teachers in order to reduce class size could go a long way in helping the problem.
Once again, you are correct in that the vast majority of the problem lies is socio-economic. I cannot tell you the number of times I have called a parent wanting to discuss their child and the fact that their child is interfering with the education of others by being disruptive and have been told "I cant handle him at home, he is your problem at school. Deal with it."
Having been in the education business for awhile I take exception to your comment that school systems are already being pumped full of cash. I assure you that they are not. Most schools I have taught in are woefully short on basic supplies; instead most teachers have to buy their own supplies. I am a science teacher and if I want to do cool science labs then most of the time it is up to me to buy those supplies. The $800.00 budget our science department gets (10+ science teachers in the building) just does not go far.
Most schools I have been in are short on textbooks and those textbooks are usually outdated and worn out. If a teacher wants to offer something cool and educational to their students we usually are told there just isn't any money. I run a highly successful robotics club in my middle school which was largely funded in the beginning out of my own pocket. I also run a rocketry club after school which, once again, is largely funded by me. I spent my summer school paycheck on a complete hybrid rocket motor system and ground support equipment to use with the kids.
I can certainly tell you that the massive influx of money is NOT going towards my salary. Everyone I know with a college degree earns generally far more than I do. Am I complaining, yes, but it is the life I chose to live. I knew what I was getting into from the beginning, salary wise.
This brings me to my main point If we want to better the educational system in America we need to raise teachers' salary (among other things). As a teacher I am generally disappointed by the people attracted to education. I am a science geek, I live, eat, and breathe science, however, most science teachers I know (especially at the middle school level) are NOT science oriented people. They are not passionate about science and this disappoints me greatly. However, many of the people I know who are passionate about science and I think would make good teachers do not want to take a massive cut in pay. The argument is that the low pay attracts people who really WANT to be teachers. I do not wholly buy that argument.
In general, I think the educational system that we have in America is a very good system and that most of the problems are not intrinsic to the educational system. For example, I teach in a school that is over 79% economically disadvantaged. My students have very little support at home and I get little to no support from the parents. My students are mal-nourished and under cared for. In general when I have problems with a student I cannot get hold of the parents, much less get support from them.
I can tell you, from my own observations that the single greatest factor that influences whether a student gets a good education or not is the parents. The students that I have that do very well in school, are not behavior problems and are active in the school community have parents that are actively involved in the their life and supportive of them. The students that do not do well in school, are constant behavior problems and have little to no involvement in the school community have parents that simply do not care to be involved in their child's life and general well-being and expect the school to be their baby sitter. It does not their socio-economic or racial background.
Go ahead, flame me.
One other comment on your post:
"Are parents involved because they and their kids are motivated and smart, or are the kids motivated and smart because their parents are involved? You can't say; neither can I."
This is an intersting question and one that I have wondered about for a long time. Who knows, maybe one day I will do a PhD thesis on the subject.
However, I think I can say that from my observations it is normally students from a solid background that do well. In other words, the kids are great kids because of the parents and not the other way around. I can say this simply because it appears to run in families. Time after time I see solid kids produced from the same parents and kids that are trouble makers produced from the same parents.
I will also say something else that may be a bit controversial. The kids that I see that are the best performing students who are rarely trouble makers also come from two parent homes. In my LEAP classes close to 100% of the students come from two parent homes. Coincidence? Maybe.
"I call BS"
"This is coming from someone who teaches the "hard-to-reach ones-ones with autism, mr, cognitive delays, as well as behavior problems."
Ok, I'm going to have to call BS then also. Your type of student does not have relevance to my type of student. I will admit that I was probably wrong to extrapolate my student population to the entire US. My school is in a poor area of North Dallas. Nearly 80% of our population is Hispanic, of which nearly all of those moved here from a foreign country and English is not their native tongue. Gangs and drugs are a growing problem; we have to shut down our bathrooms nearly everyday because of graffiti and vandalism. A great many of our parents do not speak English and have no high school degree. There is not an emphasis on education at home.
However, I will still say that a student that has active parental involvement in their lives has a MUCH higher chance of being successful in school and not being a behavior problem.
"The trouble is that many teachers ( and I don't know you personally so I can't say it applies to you) don't really teach-they present. "
I will agree. Being a science teacher I HATE the way science is taught across our country. Science is not a bunch of facts to be learned in a book. Science is a process, a journey, an exploration to discovery. We turn it into facts in a book and worksheets. I also really hate that most science teachers are not science oriented people. I meet science teachers with language arts degrees, home economics degrees, degrees in physical education but not too many with an honest to goodness degree in science education. I got into science education because I ALWAYS knew I would be a science teacher, I have always loved science and been passionate about it. The very first book I bought with my own money was a used college astronomy textbook when I was about six. I still have that book.
Science should be hands on and is the EASIEST subject to make hands on. In fact, earlier today one of my classes explored optics and the concepts of refraction and reflection with laser diodes and various prisms. We do labs or explorations nearly everyday. Many students tell me they have never learned so much in their lives in a single class or that science was actually fun. This is because they have previously been exposed to "science" by reading textbooks, memorizing definitions and doing worksheets.
David Culp
Unfortunately you are living in an idealized world.
You cannot continuously suspend a student, there and laws and regulations that regulate how long a student can be outside of the classroom and what offenses are punishable by suspension. On top of that, remember this, every day that kid spends outside of a classroom is a day that he is not learning. When it comes time for standardized testing, you and your school are still directly responsible for the performance of that student. It does not matter that he is a lazy, good for nothing trouble maker that may even enjoy causing trouble and mayhem, you are responsible for his performance on that test.
Do I think it is fair? No, but it is the way it is right now. A few years ago we had a student get suspended in the 6th grade and was later taken to juvenile justice and spent two years in JV and returned to us just 1 week before the TAKS writing test. He failed it in a large way but his scores counted against us. A week later he was sent to Juvenile Justice for distributing and had to take the April TAKS test in jail. He failed them, but his test scores counted against us because we are his school of record, even though in the last 3 years he had spent only a few weeks inside our walls.
Hopefully this reply does not come to late as I did not have a chance to reply yesterday.
"1) Would you advocate funneling monies away from sports/music/etc. and back into basic education (English, history, science, math)?"
It depends; I am a supporter of athletics and the arts, having participated in both in my middle school and high school years. However, a balance must be achieved. Here in Texas high school football is a very big deal and it is not uncommon to see school districts funnel huge amounts of money on football stadiums and football programs while their classroom teachers suffer with inadequate materials. That is simply a crime. Therefore, I would say that as long as the program is balanced, adds to the students experience and does not take away from the regular education then I am all for it.
"2) How do you feel about the tenure system? Is it good or bad to have a job for life? How do you feel about teacher evaluations? On what criteria should they be performed?"
Any system that can keep a bad employee in place and protected is a bad system. In my district we do not have a tenure system and it does not bother me in the least. I know that as long as I do a good job abnd keep my nose clean I will continue to have a job. I know that when budget cuts come around I will not be on the list of people to cut because I work my tail off and I do that best job I can.
Teachers should be evaluated on their performance in the classroom weighed against the students they have. More on this later when I talk about standardized testing.
"3) What do you think about standardized testing? Do you think it causes people to "teach to the test," rather than learning real material, or do you think that it is a useful tool to evaluate student progress?"
Personally, I do not have a problem with standardized testing. It is a great tool to evaluate yourself and your students. Our district gives what are called "benchmark" exams every couple of months so that we can see how we and our students are doing. I think the tests are great because I can look online and see exactly how my students did and compare them to every other student in the district and I can compare myself to other teachers in the district. I can look and say "Wow, 85% of my students failed objective 4. I need to reevaluate how I am teaching objective 4". Or I can say "Wow, Mrs. so-and-so scored a 95% passing rate on objective 11, I am going to talk to her about how she teaches objective 11."
Using the this system I can even focus in on individual students and say "Wow, Bob Smith did not do well on objective 3." It is a wonderful system and I love it, it gives me direct feedback on my performance and the performance of my students.
However, the system cannot be used to compare teachers and this is my big hang up with standardized tests and how they are used. You cannot say "Wow, Mr. Culp scored a 97% overall passing rate while Mrs. Smith only scored a 57% passing rate." You are comparing apples and oranges. As I said before I teach 6th and 8th grade science in our districts LEAP program which is a program for the extremely gifted. I do also teach a couple of regular ed. classes but the 3 LEAP classes skew my results well above the district average and it is an unfair comparison.
The same goes for comparing schools. My school is an economically disadvantaged school with nearly 76% of the students on free and reduced lunch, 1/3 of the student population is ESL (English as a Second Language) and another 1/3 were ESL students at one time. There is a large gang and drug problem in the area. To our north but still in our district is a middle school located in a mainly white upper middle class area. They have a huge advantage over us in terms of overall support and money and they do not have the extreme behavior problems we have. I talk to teachers from that school and they talk about the biggest problem being dress code violations when just 30 minutes ago I kindly asked a stud
This is coming from the perspective of a middle school science teacher. Our educational system is not to blame, it is not perfect, but it is a good one. Our society is to blame for the lowering importance of education and the failure of students to succeed. . This post is not meant to be an explanation of why these events our happening, only a post of my observations.
In my school and in my teaching career I meet very few teachers who do not care passionately about education and work as hard as they can to educate students in their chosen area of education. Yes, there are exceptions, but they are few and far between. Those teachers who are bad teachers generally get run out of the business.
You cannot properly educate a child who simply does not want to be educated and has no driving force behind him. Students today simply do not care about their education. Nearly all of the students who are discipline problems have one thing in common, they have apathetic parents. One of the most frustrating things for me as a teacher is dealing with parents who simply do not care. I have been told "Hey, he is your problem while he is at school" by parents. I also have difficulty in finding parents in many cases. When the parents do not care enough to discipline their child at home for behaviors at school there is absolutely nothing you can do to the child at school. What most people do not realize is that teachers have no power over students except that power which students give to the teachers. If you suspend a student it does no good if he doesn't care and his parents do not care. Once the suspension is over he is back at school disrupting the education of students who are actually there to learn something.
This would not be so bad if students and parents like this were the exception; however, they are quickly becoming the norm in today's schools. Most parents simply want to send their kids off to school and forget about them for the time they are there. I spend my days battling rude, disruptive and apathetic students rather than teaching. The sad thing is, that these students will grow up without a good education and then blame the "system" for not giving it to them. I have students from other countries where a free education is not guaranteed to you and their school s do not have textbooks, computers, even running water who marvel at the American students and wonder why they are pissing this wonderful opportunity for a free education away.
I also teach another class of students, our district has a special program for the brightest of the bright. All students who qualify for the program come to our school where the curriculum is accelerated and depth and complexity is added to suit the needs of these students. I can tell you the main difference in these students as compared with the regular students, without fail they have parents who are actively involved in their lives and truly care about them. I have no difficulty getting in contact with these parents; in fact, they will usually contact me first. These parents are the ones who actually show up to parent-teacher conference night, open house and attend games and concerts their kids are in. These parents take an active role in their child's life. These parents go out of their way to accommodate their children.
Do not take this as meaning I hate my job, I love my job and can never see me doing anything else. However, it can be extremely frustrating at times. I have much more to say on this subject and did not come anywhere close to voicing my actual and complete views on the subject, however, it is time to go to work. Perhaps tonight when I get home I will expand on the post.
David Culp
Although I cannot agree with what you said about FIRST as I have never participated in FIRST or FIRST Lego League. However, I have heard some bad things about FIRST and I have seriously looked into FLL. I was not impressed.
I run an after school robotics club at my middle school with around 40-45 student members. We meet nearly everyday after school and even during the summer. I teach the students to program in C and try to teach good engineering practices. We participate in Botball.
Botball is an absolutely incredible event for middle school and high school aged students. The game is challenging and fun. The students have 6 weeks to build and design robots to score points on a 4X8 board. The students use C and the Lego RCX and Handyboard.
I like Botball because the robots MUST be fully autonomous for the entire duration of the game. The students also get to use a much more advanced controller and sensors with the Handyboard.
Another thing I like is that coaches are NOT allowed to build and program the robots. I spend most of the year teaching C and robotics design. I try to instill in my students the KISS principle and good coding, design and implementation practices. However, when Botball comes around I take a high level coaching position. I still teach, I give advice, I answer questions and provide direction and framework for the students. I do not program the bots, I do not build them and I do not tell them what strategy to take.
I think Botball is the best middle school/high school robotics program around. We fielded two teams this year and took them to the Oklahoma Regional in Feb (we are actually in the N Dallas area) and our two middle school teams dominated the competition taking home 11 trophies and awards including 1st and 2nd place overall in the region.
The cost is less than FIRST but more than FLL. However, the money can be made. I just returned from a garage sale fund raiser our club put on and we made $1500.00 today. There are also tons of grants available, last year Verizon gave us $6,250.00. The money is there if you look.
I do not think Botball is perfect, I think they can make some improvements to make the challenge less daunting to new teams. Most teams arrive at the competition with robots that do not work properly. A little more time to prepare might be better. Another thing I hate to see is sponsors and coaches that simply give the kit to the students and say "Have fun guys, see you in six weeks." I remember watching an interview being conducted with a sponsor who did not know how to score points, she did not know what programming language the students used or anything about the competition. I supose being a warm body in the classroom and letting the students work is better than not having anyone to sponsor the team and therefore the students not getting to participate. However, as a sponsor you should at least make an effort to learn the game rules or maybe hunt down a mentor!!
I hope that Botball gets bigger and attracts more participants in future years as, like I said before, it is the best robotics competition going, hands down.
Try the following places also, Acroname and Mondotronics Robot Store
David Culp
Coach of the 2004 Oklahoma Regional Botball (http://www.botball.org) Champions (1st and 2nd place teams actually).
I would like to do FIRST as it looks extremelly interesting. However, we are just a middle school and FIRST is High School only. Botball was a huge amount of fun and for the age level of the kids was very challenging. Next year I plan on introducing the returning students to microcontrollers and basic circuit design. Within a few years I will have many of the kids that started in my robot clubs go on to high school and then we may be able to form a FIRST club using those kids. You can see our robot club at http://www.cfbisd.edu/schools/per/botball/index.ht ml
I am a teacher in a public Middle school in Carrollton, TX. I started a robotics club this year in order teach students robotics design, programming, teamwork and other skills. We use Lego Mindstorms and Handyboards in our club and program them in C, specifically Interactive C and Not Quite C (NQC). We also have one system running Linux as both IC and NQC are available for Linux.
My administration is very supportive of the club, providing money and other suppport through the year. The main difficulties in the club was raising money for the equipment and to pay the fee for the Botball competition we entered.
I applied for a grant with our local Educational Foundation and received $1,000 to fund the initital purchase of equipment. Your school district probably has an educational foundation that provides grants to teachers and students. Find a willing faculty member to sponsor your club and help you find funding and support.
Before I received that grant I began teaching the students C using a free Windows compiler I found on the net. It was perfect as it allowed the students to write Windows console applications without worrying about the code over head of a real Windows application. You can find the Bloodshed complier here
After we got our initial equipment I searched the net for grants available to public school teachers to fund technology applications. I applied for an $8,500 grant from The Verizon Foundation. This money will be used to pay our Botball entry fees for next year, and buy more advanced equipment for the students returning next year. I have had so much interest in the robotics club that I will probably have three clubs next year.