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Press Release -- FIRST in ALL NH Schools
I can't believe that no one has commented on this great achievement out of New Hampshire from last week...
From the FIRST Press Room: Press Release (Oct 6, 2008) -- Gov. Lynch, Dean Kamen Set Goal of Bringing FIRST Robotics Competition To All NH Schools (pdf; 92KB) Quote:
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Re: Press Release -- FIRST in ALL NH Schools
This is fabulous, I wish every state had the same approach and congrats to Dean Kamen.
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One state down, the rest of the world left... :)
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Re: Press Release -- FIRST in ALL NH Schools
I think this is maybe not the greatest thing ever.
Why shoot for 100% FRC participation? It may take years to find the funds, and teams may drop out or not have the support they need to be sustainable if all they're getting is $6,000. Seems like it'd be so much smarter to shoot for 100% FIRST involvement- be it FTC or FRC. The former is dirt cheap relative to FRC. It would be entirely plausible for every school to have one (or more) FTC teams. Furthermore, due to how much fewer resources you need to have a successful FTC program, it seems like the retention rate would be much better than that of FRC. |
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disregard first post...
I'm gonna have to agree with Cory on this. It will not be beneficial to the state if all schools have an expensive FRC program instead of just any other FIRST program. Something that might occur is that one year all schools might have a functioning team..but then what about later years? What if the districts realize the next year that they can't afford FRC and are turned off from all FIRST programs because of this? I don't think it would be sustainable no matter how much effort the state puts in and how the economy in our nation ends up. I know what I'm saying seems counterproductive or detrimental to the golas of FIRST, but I think it'd be better to have FIRST in all schools...not just FRC. However, this is a HUGE accomplishment for Dean and FIRST. The dream truly is coming true :) |
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Seeing how New Hampshire already has one of (if not the highest) ratio of FRC teams per capita of any state, they are already well on their way to succeeding in the mission of FIRST.
I wish them the best of luck up there with their endeavor, especially for all the [future] teams up in North Country. Besides the tourist industry, almost all of the other [logging and paper] industry has been outsourced away from there, which would probably make it difficult (though not impossible) to form FRC teams based on corporate sponsorships up there. Perhaps FTC/Vex would be a lot better suited for those rural areas, rather than a straight FRC-everywhere-across-the-board philosophy. The best strategy for the getting FIRST in all NH schools would probably be for each school to do which ever competition they feel most comfortable with, as they know best what resources they have (or can acquire) to succeed. But regardless, having the support of the Governor for the ideals of a program such as FIRST is always a good thing. |
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To me, the most notable feature of the statement was that "Gov. Lynch and Kamen challenged the state’s business and higher education communities to increase sponsorship and volunteer efforts in order to reach the 100 percent participation threshold." Not that there's anything particularly wrong with asking others for sponsorship, but it would be nice for the state government to clarify how much they intend to spend on this project. There's a gubernatorial election coming up in New Hampshire, and it is probably a fairly sound political move to announce something like this, to build popular support. But remember the similar initiative in Michigan to fund FIRST programs at the state level? It was an item that the Governor championed, but which was ultimately trimmed from the budget. I wonder whether this one will face similar obstacles when it actually comes time to pass a state budget—that will be the real test of the state's commitment. As for the merits of funding FRC throughout a state, I figure that doing so in a small state—and New Hampshire in particular—is a pretty good choice. FIRST gains clout by being able to say that it has 100% penetration in an entire state (despite the fact that there are fewer high schools there than in many large cities). And with FIRST based in New Hampshire, the politicians can be seen devoting their efforts to a worthy local cause that promises future benefits to the state's high-tech industries—doubly important when people are in a protectionist mood brought on by economic confusion. Compared to other jurisdictions, New Hampshire is an excellent place to demonstrate the best-case scenario for a 100% penetration model. If it succeeds there, then others may follow—but if it fails in the state where FIRST has access to many unique advantages, it's going to be a very hard sell elsewhere. Either way, I don't see this as being a bad experiment. |
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Obviously this press release is far too brief to determine what the level of support will be. I'd hope they have taken all of the above into account. |
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Quantity over Quality?
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Lastly, I still wonder why folks involved in these high level discussions/planning don't involve an intermediate program in a more detailed way. Isn't it a no-brainer? FRC robots are big and expensive and obtaining our new control system in any kind of quantities is just about out of the question. If we're going to give course credit for students in FRC, how many students do we really serve when we're talking one FRC robot a year in most cases? If you really want to engage a community and curriculum in a profound way doesn't the NXT/Tetrix or VEX platform make a whole lot more sense? More affordable, more availability, more hands-on for more students, more curriculum materials, more user-friendly in non-shop classroom environments? Given the current structure, if you really want sustainable involvement, wouldn't building courses and teams around an intermediate program make more sense? If you really wanna go crazy, why not put some of the money in Jr FLL expos and follow those students up the ladder in a school district. Yes, it would take longer to get to FRC teams, but think of the solid foundation and flow of students after 5 or 6 years. Ramping up to FRC gradually in one way or another would help to address John's quality/quantity questions. I am not trying to be a wet blanket here at all, but this is not the first announcement of this kind that I have heard and very few (if any) FRC-only initiatives like this provide quality, sustainable growth on such a large scale. Now, if you look at the model we see going on in Hawaii, using multiple platforms and programs to ramp up the learning toward FRC, you've got the right combination of government support and volunteers/mentors/educators in the trenches making it happen in a much more profound and lasting way IMHO. To me it comes down to this: How best do we serve the "mission" the way Woodie describes it and is that mission simply "creating large numbers of FRC teams"? I would hope that every time we get a governor on board like this we would have a plan with some detail that we could show them that is a "stretch goal" but at the same time includes the building blocks for sustainability that can outlast any one governor's tenure or budget cycle. |
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Rich,
Well said. FRC takes allot of money, very special committed teachers and mentors. Finding individuals that will commit the time required for FRC is very difficult. FTC and VEX can be rapped up into a curriculum much easier. First needs to be careful in the future that they do not swell and implode like a dying sun. |
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I'm actually attending a New Hampshire public school and I'm rather excited about certian aspects of the plan.
The part that most interests me is the fact that I may be recieving credit for participating in FIRST. I think thats an excellent way to boost attendence. The only problems I see is that a lot of New Hampshire public schools are extreamly small. If you don't live in southern New Hampshire theres not much sponsership oppurtunity or resources available to help in the design process as far as I can tell Hopefully the large New England companies such as BAE will be able to step in and help but I don't see a lot of these schools north of Concord getting a lot of support. I truly hope they do.. but I guess only time will tell. Our Team 151 has allready housed a rookie team last year in our machine shop and we are ready to offer any other help we can provide. This is deffinitly good news for FIRST... but only time will tell how successfull we are. |
Re: Press Release -- FIRST in ALL NH Schools
First off, I'd like to thank the Governor. He's setting a goal and attempting to lead people towards that goal. It is to be commended.
That said, however, his statements have to be taken with a grain of salt ... after all, It's election season. I'd also like to point out that there is no mention of money from the state, instead he's asking private companies and local education systems (both already cash strapped in this economy) to foot this initiative, and man it as well. I'm not sold on every school needing a team, and I actually believe that that may be counterproductive by diluting the talent pool of the mentors/volunteers. I do, however, believe that all students should have the oppertunity to join a FIRST program. Maybe by creating some district teams or such, rather than having teams be part of specific schools. |
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