Tomorrow morning is the kickoff to the 2010 FIRST Robotics Competition. Teams all over the world will learn for the first time how the game/sport/competition will be played. Every team will get their standard kit of parts that they can use to build a machine to compete in this year's competition. From that point every team will have 6 weeks to design, build, program and test a machine and make it ready for competition.
Smart, ambitious high-school kids all over the country, and world, are anxious for tomorrow's game details. Our new team from Forest Hills is ready too. We've got a great team assembled and are looking forward to this year's challenge.
Also, beginning tomorrow, I plan to start blogging my A, B, C's of FIRST. Check back tomorrow to see what I've got in store.
And to all the FIRST FRC teams out there preparing for the new season, good luck to everyone!
Friday, January 8, 2010
Monday, December 7, 2009
FIRST is expanding
Tomorrow I will be meeting with FRC Team 904 briefly to discuss programming options for 2010. However most of my input will fall on ears tuned to a different frequency. I expect that 904 will begin using LabVIEW this year, given their mentor support and student interest.
After a quick meeting at 904's build site, I'll be heading to Code Red's build site, team 2771 to hold a mock design session. Our new team, FRC Team 3357 will be working through a mock design / brain-storming session with Code Red as a practice exercise before the FRC Kick Off. It should be a great experience for our new kids.
It was only a year ago that team 904 was helping team 2771 get off the ground. This year team 2771 is helping team 3357 get off the ground. FIRST is certainly growing in West Michigan. East Michigan teams better watch out, 2010 will be the year the West takes control of Michigan.
After a quick meeting at 904's build site, I'll be heading to Code Red's build site, team 2771 to hold a mock design session. Our new team, FRC Team 3357 will be working through a mock design / brain-storming session with Code Red as a practice exercise before the FRC Kick Off. It should be a great experience for our new kids.
It was only a year ago that team 904 was helping team 2771 get off the ground. This year team 2771 is helping team 3357 get off the ground. FIRST is certainly growing in West Michigan. East Michigan teams better watch out, 2010 will be the year the West takes control of Michigan.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Science Education
I've been reading lots of stuff about science education in our schools. Everyone agrees that we need to do "something" to better educate our kids.
Even when speaking with principals at our school about starting a new FIRST team, they told us that they are looking to new ways to educate students, yet still follow the rules of the state. This is becoming a very tough thing to do.
This article from KansasCity.com claims "Education in U.S. must be improved". I'm not sure I totally agree.
Another article by Steven Novella (whom I highly admire) on the NeuroLogica Blog goes into how to teach science. He is a really smart guy and I've enjoyed his insight into science for years. In this article Steven goes into detail about how his daughters are learning science in school, and how he is helping them learn "how science works" at home. This is great and gets to my point.
I think it is the responsibility of the parents to create the desire in their kids to want to learn science. Most kids today don't have the desire to want to learn "how science works" because, frankly, there are lots of cooler things to be doing.
Unfortunately lots of parents aren't seeing the future very clearly. We (the USA) are losing ground when it comes to science and technology. Other countries are teaching their kids that if they learn and have an appetite for success, they'll be able to live in much better conditions then where they grew up. This is a huge motivator in places where the living conditions are not so great.
Our kids continue to play on their Xboxes, PlayStations while updating facebook in their climate controlled paradise. Nobody is seeing the possible future where things could change dramatically.
Think about it. Science education needs to start at home, and it needs to start now.
Even when speaking with principals at our school about starting a new FIRST team, they told us that they are looking to new ways to educate students, yet still follow the rules of the state. This is becoming a very tough thing to do.
This article from KansasCity.com claims "Education in U.S. must be improved". I'm not sure I totally agree.
Another article by Steven Novella (whom I highly admire) on the NeuroLogica Blog goes into how to teach science. He is a really smart guy and I've enjoyed his insight into science for years. In this article Steven goes into detail about how his daughters are learning science in school, and how he is helping them learn "how science works" at home. This is great and gets to my point.
I think it is the responsibility of the parents to create the desire in their kids to want to learn science. Most kids today don't have the desire to want to learn "how science works" because, frankly, there are lots of cooler things to be doing.
Unfortunately lots of parents aren't seeing the future very clearly. We (the USA) are losing ground when it comes to science and technology. Other countries are teaching their kids that if they learn and have an appetite for success, they'll be able to live in much better conditions then where they grew up. This is a huge motivator in places where the living conditions are not so great.
Our kids continue to play on their Xboxes, PlayStations while updating facebook in their climate controlled paradise. Nobody is seeing the possible future where things could change dramatically.
Think about it. Science education needs to start at home, and it needs to start now.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
The birth of a new team
About 3 weeks ago we had our initial meetings with principals from Forest Hills, and we began our attempt to start a new FIRST Robotics Competition team. Since then we've received our team number, 3357, and we've had some organizational meetings with the few students and mentor/parents that will be the base of the new team. We are trying to recruit new students, but time is short. I've put together a temporary web page about our team at firstobjective.org/foresthills. The team will hopefully be building a permanent site once we decide on a team name.
This Saturday, December 5, we will be having our official Kick Off meeting. Hopefully we will have good attendance and we'll be able to get an idea of how we are going to proceed.
My vision of a successful season for our new FRC team will be that in a year from now, we will be planning our second season with a much larger group of students, teachers, parents and sponsors.
The real Kick Off is in 37 days.
This Saturday, December 5, we will be having our official Kick Off meeting. Hopefully we will have good attendance and we'll be able to get an idea of how we are going to proceed.
My vision of a successful season for our new FRC team will be that in a year from now, we will be planning our second season with a much larger group of students, teachers, parents and sponsors.
The real Kick Off is in 37 days.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Exciting News
Today, a small group consisting of mentors from FRC Team 904 (myself included) and Team 2771, including a FIRST in Michigan representative met with Principals from 2 of the 3 high-schools in the Forest Hills Public School district. We explained that students from Forest Hills were already working with Team 904's FIRST Robotics Competition team and that we would like to see Forest Hills step up to the plate and help us get their own team started. After hearing us explain all the terrific benefits to students, they were in agreement and gave us the nod to recruit and put together our own team for the 2010 season.
We'll begin to hold recruiting meetings to see if we can drum up student interest so that the team can start to take shape. There are a lot of details that need to be worked out over the coming weeks and I hope to begin sharing them as we proceed.
If this team becomes a reality, it will have been born on Friday the 13th of November, 2009.
We'll begin to hold recruiting meetings to see if we can drum up student interest so that the team can start to take shape. There are a lot of details that need to be worked out over the coming weeks and I hope to begin sharing them as we proceed.
If this team becomes a reality, it will have been born on Friday the 13th of November, 2009.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Monday, November 2, 2009
No Posts
Sorry to any faithful readers for the lack of posts. Twittering has been an interesting diversion for the past few months. Maybe blogging will get more "front-burner" time soon.
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