2009 Greater Kansas City Regional

[SomeoneKnows]

I finally finished working on getting some video and photo's published from the Greater Kansas City Regional.

I was bummed out this year because I didn't have a team so I volunteered at the regional and shot some video instead. I've helped out as a mentor for the last three years with Winnetonka High School Team #1752. This year the North Kansas City school district chose not to participate in FIRST.

I wanted to capture some of the sights and sounds of a regional and provide a behind the scenes view of what goes with a robotics team from a mentor's perspective. I hope the blog post conveys the importance of making FIRST available to students.

I apologize in advance for the raw video, I still need to learn about some editing techniques.

You can view my blog here -> http://someoneknows.wordpress.com/2009/03/11/2009-first-kansas-city-regionals/

Vince Thompson @SomeoneKnows (http://twitter.com/SomeoneKnows)

[Ivan Helmrich]

Nice blog. I'd like to send the link to the administration at our school but none of the videos would play for me. I kept getting the "This video is no longer available" message.

The Tigerbytes #1775 get very little support from the school, mostly because the administration is new and they don't really "get it". The page you've put together will be a nice introduction for them.

Ivan Helmrich

[SomeoneKnows]

This is my first blog post with video so I'm not sure why you're getting the message about the video not available. I checked from home and they seem to be working. They are hosted on YouTube so is there a problem accessing them from your host? Are you trying to access it from within the school? Does your host block YouTube?

I hope the blog helps with your administration. I'm frustrated that the whole North Kansas City School District dropped out of FIRST this year. That is a large portion of the greater Kansas City area. Part of the reason I put the blog together is so people can learn how important FIRST is to the students and the community.

If I was choosing a place to live and considering schools for my kids I would probably avoid moving to NKC. People choose where they live by how good the schools are.

In 2006, the Kauffman Foundation Grant was available to high schools around KC. The grant was $2.15 Million dollars over a three year period. At about the same time North Kansas City School District approved about the same amount of money, over $2 Million, to be spent on putting artificial turf on three football fields in the district.

I keep asking who did the greater good for the NKC students, the Kauffman Foundation or their own school district?

[Tom Hand]

Hey Ivan, it is because the schools can't let kids see Youtube. So, all these good things, like this presentation from Vince, are transparent to school attendees. :(.

It is a cool presentation and thank you for putting it together and sharing it. As a side note, we had a student move to LS to be on a FIRST team as his old school did not get it.

Let me think Vince, artificial turf, or jobs, artificial turf or jobs, which way would I decide? Oh, I know, turf will get more kids to stay in sports and that will sure help the economy of the future. :(
Tom

[Hanna2325]

Thanks so much;)

[likzuz]

Thank you!

Nat from Team 1710 here and I saw the video you posted of our principal (Dr. Poss) clearly stating FIRST as one of the best programs for kids. What a great video it was to watch!

[Ivan Helmrich]

OK, it works from home. Funny, Youtube usually works from my office. Maybe there's been some new IT activity lately.:ahh:

Vince, thanks for putting this up. I'll figure out a way to get it in front of the principal. Actually, I'm pretty sure one of the kids can get around the Youtube block at the school.

Ivan

[rbrown1]

This is a great overview of the KC Regional.

Let hope that folks from NKC see this and get a better understanding of what they just passed up.

[Church]

Very cool, I like the way you have a clip about each aspect (game, safety, GP, and so on). Awesome stuff.