Please, please, PLEASE don't look over FIRST. From first hand experience, I KNOW that FIRST is VERY valuable if you're looking to get students interested in science and technology. I myself wasn't extremely interested in the engineering field before I participated. I was leaning heavily towards pre-Pharm, but now I'm looking at an engineering (biomedical engineering, to be exact) major.
The FIRST program doesn't only teach you, it inspires you. It gets you excited! I, for one, know that I probably won't be getting any sleep the first week of January because I'd be so excited about going to the local "remote" kickoff that Friday.
It's also amazing what kind of a crowd FIRST draws in, in terms of participants and fans. The "nerds" aren't the only ones participating in FIRST - many, very different people do. Fans aren't just nerds, either. FIRST Robotics Competitions are highly active, so it's just as fun to watch as it is to compete.
In short, if you're looking for a way to get high school students excited about science and technology.. FIRST is the way to go. Of course, any other robotics program would probably be just as good.. but with FIRST, I'm speaking from experience:)
(PS: I'm a high school student, so I know what I'm talking about;)
I disagree. FIRST is an amazing program, and it DOES require programming skills. If you go with the most basic designs ever (ie. a "box bot"), sure -- you can use the default code for everything. If you want to win, though, you wouldn't go with the most basic design. If you don't go with the most basic design possible, you'd have to at LEAST modify the program a LITTLE - and even THAT requires at least SOME knowledge of programming.
Also, not all teams have mentors who take over everything. I, for one, know that the students on my school's team do the bulk of the work. While it is unfortunate that some mentors might be prone to building the entire robot themselves, the students still (in most cases) DO learn. Dean Kamen himself said that students on one such team could explain perfectly well how their robot works.
I think that the benefits to FIRST greatly outweigh the disadvantages.
I agree. Words cannot express how grateful I am for FIRST. In 6 weeks, I learned the basics of programming, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering. Sure - it's very basic - but that's a heck of a lot to learn in 6 weeks. What's more, I had as much fun as I could ever have while I was learning.
FIRST is an amazing program. I highly recommend supporting it.. it not only helps foster interest in engineering, design, art (3D animation contest), etc., but also instills many valuable skills (teamwork, gracious professionalism (tm), etc.) in its participants.
Please don't generalize like that. Maybe I'm taking what you said a little too seriously, but what you said is uncalled for. Yes, quite a few teens completely ignore the rules of English when they're not in English class, but not all high school students are like that. I know that everyone I know (with one or two exceptions) "can actually write."
It's not the school system that teaches us to tYP3 1yke d!s, it's just an annoying trend that some idiot started.
(PS: Yes, I'm a high school student, too. Shocking, isn't it?)
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Please, please, PLEASE don't look over FIRST. From first hand experience, I KNOW that FIRST is VERY valuable if you're looking to get students interested in science and technology. I myself wasn't extremely interested in the engineering field before I participated. I was leaning heavily towards pre-Pharm, but now I'm looking at an engineering (biomedical engineering, to be exact) major. The FIRST program doesn't only teach you, it inspires you. It gets you excited! I, for one, know that I probably won't be getting any sleep the first week of January because I'd be so excited about going to the local "remote" kickoff that Friday. It's also amazing what kind of a crowd FIRST draws in, in terms of participants and fans. The "nerds" aren't the only ones participating in FIRST - many, very different people do. Fans aren't just nerds, either. FIRST Robotics Competitions are highly active, so it's just as fun to watch as it is to compete. In short, if you're looking for a way to get high school students excited about science and technology.. FIRST is the way to go. Of course, any other robotics program would probably be just as good.. but with FIRST, I'm speaking from experience :)
(PS: I'm a high school student, so I know what I'm talking about ;)
I disagree. FIRST is an amazing program, and it DOES require programming skills. If you go with the most basic designs ever (ie. a "box bot"), sure -- you can use the default code for everything. If you want to win, though, you wouldn't go with the most basic design. If you don't go with the most basic design possible, you'd have to at LEAST modify the program a LITTLE - and even THAT requires at least SOME knowledge of programming. Also, not all teams have mentors who take over everything. I, for one, know that the students on my school's team do the bulk of the work. While it is unfortunate that some mentors might be prone to building the entire robot themselves, the students still (in most cases) DO learn. Dean Kamen himself said that students on one such team could explain perfectly well how their robot works. I think that the benefits to FIRST greatly outweigh the disadvantages.
I agree. Words cannot express how grateful I am for FIRST. In 6 weeks, I learned the basics of programming, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering. Sure - it's very basic - but that's a heck of a lot to learn in 6 weeks. What's more, I had as much fun as I could ever have while I was learning. FIRST is an amazing program. I highly recommend supporting it.. it not only helps foster interest in engineering, design, art (3D animation contest), etc., but also instills many valuable skills (teamwork, gracious professionalism (tm), etc.) in its participants.
Please don't generalize like that. Maybe I'm taking what you said a little too seriously, but what you said is uncalled for. Yes, quite a few teens completely ignore the rules of English when they're not in English class, but not all high school students are like that. I know that everyone I know (with one or two exceptions) "can actually write."
It's not the school system that teaches us to tYP3 1yke d!s, it's just an annoying trend that some idiot started.
(PS: Yes, I'm a high school student, too. Shocking, isn't it?)