JoeXIII'007
26-03-2011, 23:55
Great blog JVN, thanks for sharing, and my goodness I am late to this conversation.
First, my hopefully short and concise thoughts on the events you speak of seem more or less reflective of the state of culture in a fair (not all, but a handful) number of places in the US. In my neighborhood and those surrounding it there are attitudes that seem out of place. Heck, in conversation with someone at a company around here this person uttered some things about another country that frankly put a dent in things.
Then there's the state of politics in this country, but we've been there before on CD... ;) (2004 though was frankly heaven compared to what we've seen lately...)
The solution to this mess is best left to social scientists, and I'll leave it at that. That is not to say FIRST should not bother with this problem: a culture of professionalism seems to be a mitigating factor when keeping the nasty stuff out, and the GP concept is a loveable, irreplaceable, forbidden to be removed part of FIRST.
****
Now for some perspective from being on Team 66.
My 4 years on it (2004-2007) were interesting. All of them started the same: kick-off, meeting at the 'war room' the Sunday after to go through the concept design brainstorming process (list possibilities, knock off the unlikely possibilities, end of day: have a rough idea of what we want), the following week refine the design down to specific mechanisms, and then spend the next few weeks building the practice field, learning how to use lathes, drill presses, grinders, etc. etc. etc. while getting briefed on any changes to design that occurred. A few times we got to ride in a little cart to tour select parts of the plant that we worked in, and now that it is closed (http://www.annarbor.com/business-review/gm-willow-run-one-last-look-as-historic-manufacturing-plant-closes/), I am forever thankful for having that opportunity.
Which leads to perhaps a point to drop here: I have been thinking back occasionally wondering, what was actually more important? learning the skills necessary to build a robot? or learning the thinking process necessary to get there? a process which coincidentally can be applied to a lot of other things with a few minor tweaks.
The former, skills to build X, depend highly upon the availability of resources to get it done, and resources are limited so long as we're stuck here on Earth (thus why measure 2 or more times, cut once, recycle/reuse the rest if possible). The latter, a thought process, depends only on your mind and mine, which lasts pretty much until death, and can be used in a countless number of things (i.e. Data Mining, a personal favorite), including those which have yet to be encountered.
(Repeating that last point was not an accident...)
I digress, back to the main point. So 66 became a powerhouse after 4 years of existence (2002, birth 1998) because we had professionals, who knew their stuff and knew it well, demonstrate their craft. From 2004 on, this was the way things went. It's clearly worked, and in fact has worked so well that even without the mentor resources/other resources once available, 66 has been able to compete strongly this season.
So competitiveness becomes a norm, outreach follows, because there's a stable platform to work out from.
How has this worked? Well, day after kick off this year, I stop by the now 1 year old new nest of the team, and I discover more NXT bricks than ever laying around the room (6?). This is progress from the year I graduated, where we only had one NXT brick and a struggling FLL team (partly my fault for not doing the proper work to set up a decent structure as I was more concerned with the existence of a team... , partly the fault of a lack of resources within the district/will, and time on my end as there was school and dual enrollment).
Also, I heard that there were some 20-30 kids, mostly new ones on the team. I found that out officially this weekend. Greatest thing: it's probably the most diverse in cultural background than the team has ever been. It's _______ beautiful, and humbling, and amazing, and beyond anything I had ever imagined. Now it's just a matter of getting these kids exposed to the methods of design, the thinking involved, the teamwork necessary, and they'll have things that will last their entire lifetime if they take care to use it.
Oh yeah, an actual robotics class... good Lord it came to life. Yes!!!
Obviously, a lot of detail is missing here, and I do not have details to what all he did (beyond finding new sponsors and negotiating with the board of ed.), but the current teacher/mentor of 66 has done an amazing job.
So this should be taken as perspective. I've been in the camp of more student involvement certainly, to the point where I always help out with the other team in town at the annual festival, and as a result have made great friends over the years. We keep in touch.
This all said, there are things from the mentor built end of the world that are worth reading between the lines on, because they're important, more so than often noted. I hope to have successfully hinted on it here.
*puts two steel pennies in the can*
:cool:
First, my hopefully short and concise thoughts on the events you speak of seem more or less reflective of the state of culture in a fair (not all, but a handful) number of places in the US. In my neighborhood and those surrounding it there are attitudes that seem out of place. Heck, in conversation with someone at a company around here this person uttered some things about another country that frankly put a dent in things.
Then there's the state of politics in this country, but we've been there before on CD... ;) (2004 though was frankly heaven compared to what we've seen lately...)
The solution to this mess is best left to social scientists, and I'll leave it at that. That is not to say FIRST should not bother with this problem: a culture of professionalism seems to be a mitigating factor when keeping the nasty stuff out, and the GP concept is a loveable, irreplaceable, forbidden to be removed part of FIRST.
****
Now for some perspective from being on Team 66.
My 4 years on it (2004-2007) were interesting. All of them started the same: kick-off, meeting at the 'war room' the Sunday after to go through the concept design brainstorming process (list possibilities, knock off the unlikely possibilities, end of day: have a rough idea of what we want), the following week refine the design down to specific mechanisms, and then spend the next few weeks building the practice field, learning how to use lathes, drill presses, grinders, etc. etc. etc. while getting briefed on any changes to design that occurred. A few times we got to ride in a little cart to tour select parts of the plant that we worked in, and now that it is closed (http://www.annarbor.com/business-review/gm-willow-run-one-last-look-as-historic-manufacturing-plant-closes/), I am forever thankful for having that opportunity.
Which leads to perhaps a point to drop here: I have been thinking back occasionally wondering, what was actually more important? learning the skills necessary to build a robot? or learning the thinking process necessary to get there? a process which coincidentally can be applied to a lot of other things with a few minor tweaks.
The former, skills to build X, depend highly upon the availability of resources to get it done, and resources are limited so long as we're stuck here on Earth (thus why measure 2 or more times, cut once, recycle/reuse the rest if possible). The latter, a thought process, depends only on your mind and mine, which lasts pretty much until death, and can be used in a countless number of things (i.e. Data Mining, a personal favorite), including those which have yet to be encountered.
(Repeating that last point was not an accident...)
I digress, back to the main point. So 66 became a powerhouse after 4 years of existence (2002, birth 1998) because we had professionals, who knew their stuff and knew it well, demonstrate their craft. From 2004 on, this was the way things went. It's clearly worked, and in fact has worked so well that even without the mentor resources/other resources once available, 66 has been able to compete strongly this season.
So competitiveness becomes a norm, outreach follows, because there's a stable platform to work out from.
How has this worked? Well, day after kick off this year, I stop by the now 1 year old new nest of the team, and I discover more NXT bricks than ever laying around the room (6?). This is progress from the year I graduated, where we only had one NXT brick and a struggling FLL team (partly my fault for not doing the proper work to set up a decent structure as I was more concerned with the existence of a team... , partly the fault of a lack of resources within the district/will, and time on my end as there was school and dual enrollment).
Also, I heard that there were some 20-30 kids, mostly new ones on the team. I found that out officially this weekend. Greatest thing: it's probably the most diverse in cultural background than the team has ever been. It's _______ beautiful, and humbling, and amazing, and beyond anything I had ever imagined. Now it's just a matter of getting these kids exposed to the methods of design, the thinking involved, the teamwork necessary, and they'll have things that will last their entire lifetime if they take care to use it.
Oh yeah, an actual robotics class... good Lord it came to life. Yes!!!
Obviously, a lot of detail is missing here, and I do not have details to what all he did (beyond finding new sponsors and negotiating with the board of ed.), but the current teacher/mentor of 66 has done an amazing job.
So this should be taken as perspective. I've been in the camp of more student involvement certainly, to the point where I always help out with the other team in town at the annual festival, and as a result have made great friends over the years. We keep in touch.
This all said, there are things from the mentor built end of the world that are worth reading between the lines on, because they're important, more so than often noted. I hope to have successfully hinted on it here.
*puts two steel pennies in the can*
:cool: