From my own expieriences in High School, I must say I disagree with you.
"If you want wide appeal, robots are the way to go."
I attend a school of 3000 people and we have a robotics club of 8 members, including myself.
"Sorry, but playing with a calculator won't appeal to that many people."
Again, my own expierience says otherwise. High School students like to play with calculators. Think about it, the calculator is one of the few (and the only easily programmable) electronic gadgets that all HS students carry with them everywhere. It's only natural that they should be interested in how to play around with it. Even in our 8-man robotics club, we spend as much time mucking about with TI-83s as we do with robots. Even in French or Social Studies, it is quite common to see students with their calculators out simply because they find that "playing with a calculator" is the most interesting thing to do.
Slashdot Mirror
Hopefully this time 'round, they'll be able to bypass that whole "creating terrifying weapons of mass destruction" thing.
From my own expieriences in High School, I must say I disagree with you.
"If you want wide appeal, robots are the way to go."
I attend a school of 3000 people and we have a robotics club of 8 members, including myself.
"Sorry, but playing with a calculator won't appeal to that many people."
Again, my own expierience says otherwise. High School students like to play with calculators. Think about it, the calculator is one of the few (and the only easily programmable) electronic gadgets that all HS students carry with them everywhere. It's only natural that they should be interested in how to play around with it. Even in our 8-man robotics club, we spend as much time mucking about with TI-83s as we do with robots. Even in French or Social Studies, it is quite common to see students with their calculators out simply because they find that "playing with a calculator" is the most interesting thing to do.