|
Re: Political Activism "Dean's Homework"
Hey some good news!
In AZ there is a group that the governor has called the P-20 Council on Education. They meet several times a year to discuss future education in Arizona. We got the council to agree to hold their meeting at the Arizona Regional. Anybody who is anybody in education in AZ will be there, including the Governor! In addition to this great news, we got the Governor to do the opening ceremonies at the Lego State Tournament this past Dec 9! It feels like we are making headway. Next is to group our AZ teams to pressure the state legislature to start funding after school academic activities, like FIRST teams! We plan on starting the e-mailing your representative and senators campaign Monday!! |
Re: Political Activism "Dean's Homework"
Quote:
This site is a great place to contact senators. |
Re: Political Activism "Dean's Homework"
Here is some interesting information everyone may want to check out and/or forward to your elected officials. In case you didn't know already how extreme the situation was, the most recent PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) data reveals the United States earned BELOW average scores for developed countries in the areas of Mathematics and Problem Solving. The accuracy of the test and the reasons for the low marks by US students can be argued (as they were in one of my classes), but the US does not lie in the top 5, 10, or even 20 of developed countries. These are high school students taking these tests.
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/quarterl..._2.asp#Table_B The data is from 2003, but this is the most recently posted data from the PISA organization. The article was published December 4th. It's shocking to see how far behind the US is. |
Re: Political Activism "Dean's Homework"
Quote:
February 1, 2007 Dear Jane: Thank you for your communication regarding the successes of the LASA Robotics Team and for sharing the article about Rhode Island's efforts to expand science and math education through robotics. Please let me know of future LASA Robotics events and successes. I would also appreciate your thoughts on other issues that may be considered in Congress. If you have not already, please take a moment to visit my website at www.house.gov/doggett where you can complete a survey online. Please keep me advised of any federal matters on which I may be of assistance. Sincerely, Lloyd --------------- U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett 201 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 (202) 225-4865, (512) 916-5921 http://www.house.gov/doggett The team is getting ready to send their homework letter/invitation that Mr. Kamen has requested and I responded to Mr. Doggett to keep a look out for it.:] |
Re: Political Activism "Dean's Homework"
My senators havent replied to me or anything. :(
I sent it weeks ago. Can't say I didn't try... |
Re: Political Activism "Dean's Homework"
Quote:
that what you just said is the whole point. We're trying. I wrote Mr. Doggett in mid-December as per Mr. Schuetze's request at the beginning of this thread. I just got this email on Feb. 1. I wrote several others as well and and am happy to have one response that mentions our team's name. It makes me think next year will be easier and I'll write even more letters.:) The important thing is that you did your homework with a great attitude and in a timely manner. That's GP right there. .02 Jane |
Re: Political Activism "Dean's Homework"
Quote:
But, what can you do? I guess just try harder next time. Anyhow, your post did make me feel a bit better, so thanks again. |
Re: Political Activism "Dean's Homework"
Quote:
Mr. Doggett asked me to keep him up on the team's successes. Ok - but what are successes? Are they wins - as in competitions? Or are they more than that - a great demonstration to children who have never seen a robot & its group of students who are passionate about robotics - a fundraiser that involves the whole school community - a workshop with young children from dire circumstances that are succeeding in being a part of a team effort for 2 hours without having a panic attack or acting out salvaging your robots from inches of rain in your shop because of a hole in the school's roof during a storm over the weekend having students at risk graduate and go on to college, majoring in engineering -- that's what else I'm thinking about and it's probably going to be some of the successes Mr. Doggett and other officials are going to be hearing about. It's not easy dealing with the reality that others aren't as passionate as we are and that the process may be slower than we want it to be - but it gives me plenty of time to think and prepare... thank you Andrew - you helped me find words for my thoughts. Jane |
Re: Political Activism "Dean's Homework"
Quote:
|
Re: Political Activism "Dean's Homework"
LASA Robotics (team 418) had a very unique opportunity yesterday that I would like to share with you all.
The American Youth Policy Forum plans a series of field trips to help state policy leaders learn more about high school redesign. It is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation supports the Honor States Grant Program, an initiative of the National Governors Association (NGA), by providing hands-on professional development activities to governors, their staffs, members of state boards of education, and other education leaders. You can find more about these trips by going to: http://www.aypf.org/projects/statehsreformtrips.htm On their most recent scheduled trip the legislators visited Austin, Texas, and came specifically to LBJ High School / LASA. The themes of the visit was to discuss how to best forge public-private partnerships to improve graduation and college-readiness rates, and also about what Texas has done to increase the number of high school graduates with strong backgrounds in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). As part of the STEM discussion, the legislators wanted to speak with our team coach, Tony Bertucci, about his nationally recognized robotics curriculum and also about the opportunities and benefits that competitive robotics (FIRST being a strong highlight) brings to a students overall experience. Team 418 treated the legislators to a personalized demonstration of several FIRST robots (from the past 3 years, unfortunately Phunky is still in transit) and spoke with them as a group and individually/personally about their learning experiences in the FIRST program and in their robotics education. What makes this an even more unique experience for us is that we not only had access to our own Texas state legislators, but we had access to: Representative Donald Blakey - Delaware Senator Sharon Weston Broome - Louisiana Senator Scott P. Brown - Massachusettes Representative Hollis Downs - Mississippi Representative Derrick Graham - Kentucky Representative Mindy Greiling - Minnesota Representative Scott Hochberg - Texas Representative Avon R. Honey - Louisiana Representative Joni Jenkins - Kentucky Representative Sherra Lane - Mississippi Representative Carol McFarlane - Minnesota Senator Yvonne B. Miller - Virginia Representative David Myers - Mississippi Representative Dora Olivo - Texas Representative Alice Hanlon Peisch - Massachusettes Representative Frank Rasche - Kentucky Senator Karen Spilka - Massachusettes Representative Marsha Swails - Minnesota Senator Jack Westwood - Kentucky Senator Ken Winters - Kentucky It was a real treat for us when they told us that they enjoyed our demonstration/presentation much more than anything else on their trip thus far, and after sitting in on their panel discussion about TSTEM and Public-Private partnerships I can certainly relate. :o Anyway, we're excited that we had the opportunity to reach out to such a diverse group of legislators and could proselytize the FIRST message. -Danny |
Re: Political Activism "Dean's Homework"
Quote:
Chesapeake Regional Government Officials in Attendance (See photo gallery at www.chesapeakefirst.org & Bios of all who spoke at Regional Event attached) Chuck Campbell Deputy Chief Information Office, Veterans Health Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Jon W. Dudas Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Dr. Delores Etter Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition Margaret A. (Peggy) Focarino Deputy Commissioner for Patent Operations for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) * The Honorable Carlos M. Gutierrez U. S. Secretary of Commerce Eugene Huang White House Fellow, U. S. Department of Treasury Dave Lavery Telerobotics Technology Program Manager, Program Executive for Solar System Exploration, NASA headquarters Dr. Kathie L. Olsen Deputy Director, National Science Foundation (NSF) B. J. Penn Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Installations and Environment Terri Prayer Program Development Specialist for the State Office for Career and Technology Education & School-to-Careers for the District of Columbia Public Schools, Washington, D.C. Honorable John Sarbanes U. S. House of Representatives (MD, 3rd District) Capt. Rick White U.S. Navy Director Engineering and Weapons Division, USNA Benjamin Wu Assistant Secretary for the Capital Region, Senior Advisor for Technology Policy for the State of Maryland In Attendance: Honorable Curt Anderson House of Delegates, State of Maryland Kimberly M. Brodie Special Assistant Office of Educational Technology US Department of Education Christian Caballero White House Fellow, U S Department of Agriculture John Calvert, Administrator, Inventors Assistance Program, USPTO Jason Scott Dean White House Fellow, U S Department of Education Honorable John Doll Commissioner for Patent Operations, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Jeffrey William Eggers White House Fellow, National Security Council Tony Fowler U S Department of Education Honorable Peter Franchot Comptroller, State of Maryland Dr. Patrica Gruber Director of Research, Office of Naval Research, U S Department of the Navy Miguel Damian Howe White House Fellow, Millennium Challenge Corporation Adam Jacoff NIST Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory William Jeffrey Director, NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) Bedouin Leclerc Joseph White House Fellow, Office of Management and Budget Kathie Kirik Program Analyst, Office of the Commissioner for Patents, USPTO Frederick William Kacher White House Fellow, Homeland Security Agency Westley Watende Moore White House Fellow, U S Department of State Michael E. Newman, Director Media Relations Public & Business Affairs NIST Denise Nooe Office of U S Senator Barbara Mikulski Jocelyn Jones Pickford White House Fellow, U S Internal Revenue Service George Ruiz White House Fellow, U S Department of Veterans Affairs Lena Sene White House Fellow U S Department of Housing and Urban Development Brigid Smith Director of Government, Business & Community Affairs Office of Congressman John Sarbanes, U S House Of Representatives Mark DuBois Smith White House Fellow NASA Jeffrey Daniel Stern White House Fellow, U. S. Department of Interior Mark Vincent Vlasic White House Fellow, Department of Defense Albert J. Wavering Chief, Intelligent Systems Division, NIST Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory State of Maryland official acts by the Governor on behalf of FIRST: 1. Team 1719 successfully submitted the proposal: Governor O'Malley proclaimed Friday, March 16, 2007 as FIRST Robotics Challenge Program Day in Maryland 2. On April 17, 2007 The 350+ mentors in FIRST from Maryland have been selected to receive a "2007 Governor's Volunteer Service Award for Youth." Successful submission of the proposal (originally was for an individual) by Jenny Beatty. Attendance by MD Congressional Delegation Team 1111 invited Congressman Sarbanes and Senator Mikulski to Chesapeake. |
Re: Political Activism "Dean's Homework" Post competition
What to do now that the Regionals are over and Championship is days away. Follow up with all of your emails. We need to build relationships with our elected officials. What does one say in a follow up email? If you had any positives from your competition or season, tell them about them. Personalize the note a bit. Include a short note about how your team hosted a group of students and teachers from Brazil for two weeks while they were here for the competition.
If you are a team in Texas, send them this very important follow-up: State Senator Leticia Van De Putte has reserved exhibit space in the Basement of the Capitol building Rotunda for the entire week of April 23rd - 27th. This space will be used to highlight the various robotics programs that exist in Texas. Each day a different school(s) and team will demonstrate their robot in this space and be recognized on the Senate floor by their representative. Call, Email, Fax, or send your State Senator and State Representative asking them to stop by and visit with the teams that are there each day. Let them know that this is an opportunity for them to learn a bit more about the competitions and see actual robots without having to leave their offices or the capitol building. They won't have to travel and miss possibly important legislative buisiness to get a taste of what it is we all do.:D The schedule is as follows: Texas Robot Exposition Schedule of programs Mon, 4/23 - EARLY & GEAR EISD LBJ and Perales elementary schools Tue, 4/24 - Botball EISD E. T. Wrenn middle school Wed, 4/25 - BEST Austin area teams ... Thu, 4/26 - FIRST Lego League & VEX Austin area teams ... Fri, 4/27 - FIRST EISD 0499 Toltechs & AISD LASA 0418 Purple Haze How did this come about and who is organizing it? It was a follow up email that I sent to State Senator Van De Putte last July. Our team first contacted her and other officials in 2005 when we were asking for help with obtaining Texas memorialbilia for the Brazillian teams that we coming to the Lone Star Regional. Our team served as ambassadors to several of the Brazilian and Ecuadorian teams that year. So keep in contact and keep sending them letters, good will eventually come of these efforts and may take some time to get rolling.:cool: |
Re: Political Activism "Dean's Homework"
Just this past Thursday team 418 hosted a contingent of approximately ( I have not gotten the final tally) 5 US Senators, 19 US Representative, 2 political analyst and a couple of state education people who came to our school to "see what we do with robotics". I beleive it was time well spent because FIRST has encouraged the members of teams all over the country to expand their thought process to a level that Washington may be beginning to pay attention. Good assignment Dean Kamen! Where do we go from here, I wonder?
|
Re: Political Activism "Dean's Homework"
Has anyone checked out the FIRST Forum lately? We have been slaving away on Dean's homework!
http://forums.usfirst.org/forumdisplay.php?f=294 We still have four more days!! Also we made up a webpage for all AZ teams to use to help http://www.phxhs.k12.az.us/education...67&pagecat=298 and http://www.phxhs.k12.az.us/education...67&pagecat=308 its a big file!! It has the whole US house of Reps!! Our goal was 4000, I don't know if we can make it....... We have 15 politicians show up for the AZ regional and we have one AZ Representative attending Atlanta! Rep. Ben Miranda! We wanted more, but oh well, one step at a time! Take care all! |
Re: Political Activism "Dean's Homework"
Well I just finished and submitted my home work, and email to DoDDS:
(Could some one PM me the link for home work submittal on FIRSTs website?) Here's holding my breath. It be a dream of mine if DoDDS picked up FIRST. Frankly I'd be amazed if I actually got a response, but here's hoping! The Department of Defense Dependents Schools (DODDS) DODEA, Human Resources Personnel.Helpline@hq.dodea.edu Communications Office communications@hq.dodea.edu Office of Educational Support Policy and Legislation hq.espl@hq.dodea.edu Diana J. Ohman Director, DoDDS-Europe E-mail Ms. Ohman at Director.DODDS.Europe@eu.dodea.edu Frank X. O'Gara DoDEA Educational Communications Officer frank.o'gara@hq.dodea.edu DoDDS-E Public Affairs Dennis.Bohannon@eu.dodea.edu Gifted Programs - DoDDS-E.Gifted@eu.dodea.edu Student Activities; DARE; Co-Currlicular Activities - DoDDS-E.Activities@eu.dodea.edu AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) Contact avid@eu.dodea.edu Bitburg American High School (My old High School for a year) Principal: David Carlisle BitburgHS.Principal@eu.dodea.edu Assistant Principal: Susan Ransom Susan.Ransom@eu.dodea.edu Booster Club baron_boosters@hotmail.com School Advisory Committee, SAC BitburgHighSAC@hotmail.com To the leadership of the DoDDS, My name is Jeff Martinez, graduate of Bitburg American Middle School, and now mechanical engineer with Lockheed Martin for the VH-71 Presidential Helicopter. I would like to request a moment of your time to speak freely about a high school educational program that literally changed my life. For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), is an organization with the goal of encouraging students into engineering fields while changing our culture’s perception of education. Each year FIRST holds a sporting like competition in which high school teams have six weeks to design and build their robots. In the last fifteen years, FIRST Robotics has grown to around thirteen hundred teams with forty regional competitions across the country. To mitigate costs while providing valuable mentors, each high school is typically paired with corporate sponsors such as Delphi Automotive, WPI, Lockheed Martin, Dupont and NASA. The program provides students with hands on learning with real world engineering experience in one of the fastest paced, intellectually challenging environments imaginable. While the machines may be similar, FIRST Robotics is not the Battle Bots of television that focuses on destruction for entertainment purposes. Instead, FIRST is about building people: students are praised for their accomplishments, cooperation between teams is highly encouraged, and each member tempered by a spirit of Gracious Professionalism because FIRST knows when one succeeds, we all succeed. It is a simple fact that I would not be where I am if it were not the FIRST Robotics program offered to me while in college. As a mentor of one of the few university based corporate sponsors, Clarkson University, I was given the challenge of educating students, inspiring them into engineering fields, while developing them into model citizens for the twenty-first century. It is my opinion that our students and I learned more about engineering in those first six weeks then four years of college. FIRST Robotics is a program I am highly active with today nearly seven years later, being one of thousands who typically volunteer over a hundred hours per month. We believe that every American student should be given the opportunity to be involved. To that affect Dean Kamen, inventor of the first insulin pump, Segway Personal Transport, and found of FIRST, has charged teams with the homework assignment of getting government leaders personally involved with the program. While most are contacting Senators and Governors, I decided to focus my efforts on the system that raised me: the Department of Defense. I am proud to be a brat while performing my duties for future presidents. The United States Air Force gave me incredible opportunities to experience the world while growing my quality as an individual. So now, I wish to return the favor by offering an equally exciting challenge to the next generation of military dependents. Please review the enclosed program information and consider it for you school districts with a heavy heart and an open mind. Thank you for the honor of your consideration. With utmost respect, Jeffrey Adam Martinez Mechanical Engineer Associate Team US101 Weight Management LM Systems Integration – Owego (Attachments) My FIRST General Program Proposal FRC Summary 2005 FIRST pfd Get Involved Teams 2005 FIRST pfd |
| All times are GMT -5. The time now is 12:57. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2017, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright © Chief Delphi