White House announces major STEM initiative
 

Today at the White House, President Obama is launching an “Educate to Innovate” campaign to improve the participation and performance of America’s students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

The event will kick off at 11:30 a.m. with a speech from the President. There will be a webcast available below. OSTP Director John P. Holdren and Education Secretary Arne Duncan will also be hosting a Facebook chat at 1 p.m. to discuss the new initiative.

http://blog.ostp.gov/2009/11/23/pres...t-white-house/

And look who appears to be standing in line to get into the White House: http://twitpic.com/qn3kg

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

How did you even find Dave in that picture?

Edit: Or how did anyone find Dave in that picture? (After reading the comments)

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

Obama just announced that a high school team is there and will demonstrate their robot that shoots moonrocks! I didn't catch the name of the team though.

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

For some reason I remember reading that 116 is there. (But I cannot recall where I read that)

EDIT: Found the source, Team 116 has a twitter account and it was on there.

And spotting Dave in that picture wasn't hard, especially when you tend to look at Adam's pictures rather closely because a lot of them are funny.

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

Ah, I didn't realize that was Adam Savage's twitter.

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

EDITED: I have my answer -- their Webcast is messed up. I was online at 8:20 PST and the "White House Live" frame never changed for more than an hour. By going to a different site and then drilling in two levels I finally found the elusive "11:30 EST." Did Obama say anything interesting?

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

Not sure what you're talking about Rick, the page comes up for me.

116 has undertaken these kinds of initiatives before ... everything from Capitol Hill visits to mentoring new rookie teams, facilitating FRC kickoff events, events on the National Mall, etc etc. I'm glad a team of their caliber could represent FIRST in D.C.

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

I'm watching a highlight on CNN right now. They showed about 10 seconds, nothing that interesting. Just repeating that we need to lead innovation.

Edit: There's still this "Open for Questions

Sec. Duncan and Dir. Holdren discuss STEM announcement" on whitehouse.gov/live

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

The webcast was indeed miserable, but the address was shown live on CNN. Unfortunately, I missed the portion where the FIRST team was introduced. The President made some powerful statements regarding the importance of STEM for the country's future. He specifically mentioned FIRST robotics as a program inspiring students in science, math an technology. The President spoke of major STEM program (5 yr, $100M), Connect a Million Minds, led by Time Warner Cable, partnering with FIRST and the Coalition for Science After School (CSAS). He also announced a National Lab Day and national science fair, with winners of various competitions invited to the White House.

CNN nearly cut away before the brief robotics demonstration at the end of the event, even after the media had been admonished by the President for it's lack of interest in the subject of education! Fortunately, the robotics demonstration did manage about 15 seconds of air time before CNN returned to it's regular news coverage. :rolleyes:

P.S. I believe the robot was from Team 623 (Oakton HS), two of the team members were introduced by the President. Awesome job!!

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

Realted White House press release is here:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-...-technology-en

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

"Why doesn't every high school in this country have a robotics team?" - John P. Holdren

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

Transcript of the announcement:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-...ovate-campaign

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

Excellent question.

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

I just took a look at the Connect A Million Minds website at http://www.connectamillionminds.com and saw the 3 requirements to request support:

• Be a registered 501(c)3 organization
• Provide youth (ages 11-18) access to hands-on STEM learning opportunities in after-school settings
• Be located within TWC's footprint

The area of Time Warner Cable's footprint encompasses California, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas & Wisconsin. If I were a team in one of those states, I would start applying - http://www.connectamillionminds.com/...t_support.php#

The cool thing is that you can request In-Kind support as well. Teams could start producing PSA's and have them air for no cost.

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

The New York Times has posted a quick synopsis of the event, with a picture of a FIRST robot! I'm not sure of the team #, though.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2...y-learning/?hp

Here is a picture from the nytimes.com homepage:

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

That would be Team #623, though I expect 116 was still there in some capacity since they hail from Herndon H.S.:

another interesting blurb from the transcript:

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

A few pictures from today's event -

President Obama announces a major STEM education initiative, while standing in front of the Oakton High School (Team 623) FIRST robot.


Afterwards the President greeted the students at the event, including Epsilon Delta (Team 116). The President was very specifc - he wanted to have a group photo with all the students - "and no adults allowed!"


The team sat next to Jamie Hyneman and Adams Savage from The Mythbusters during the event. Possible highlight of the day - getting Adam to laugh right in the middle of his phone call by asking if he wanted to go to lunch with us at White Castle.


The entire event was extremely impressive, and both Team 116 and Team 623 were very honored to be asked to represent the FIRST community during this announcement. The President's clarity on the absolute need for a focused effort to increase the importance of education, and STEM topics in particular, was empassioned and desperately needed. We all are looking forward to the effects that this initiative will have. Based on what we have learned already, some of these effects (such as the new programming through the Time-Warner stations) will start to show up almost immediately.

And the implicit promise to have the winners of future FIRST competitions come to the White House was not missed on any of us! :)

-dave


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Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

“This is all stuff you can get at Radio Shack?” Mr. Obama said.

No, the students said, shaking their heads.


Love it.

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

There are a couple simple answers to this excellent question.

1) Generally, there has been very poor support for these programs at the District level.

2) In direct response to #1 above, there is a lack of $$$$.

So Mr. Holdren, how are you going to change this?

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

You can now watch the event:President Obama's "Education To Innovate" Campaign

You may even recognize some folks in the audience.

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Thanks, Vince.

The AndyMark operations just shut down for 20 minutes to watch this video. It was time well spent. Kudos to all who were involved and made this happen.

Sincerely,
Andy Baker

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

Thanks for the link, Vince!

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

Sounds like an good initiative from the President, but I was personally disappointed by their seemingly lack of knowledge of the FIRST Robotics Program. In the press release and articles about the announcement they keept on referring to the 'cougar cannon'..... which I found as a pour way to describe a FIRST Robot, and FIRST probably doesn't like thats their main mention in the press releases. Its one of those things that the media thinks sounds cool, but doesn't describe what a FIRST Robot really is. I was hoping for more, I have yet to figure out how FIRST and FIRST teams will be able to benefit from the program. Hopefully we will see more details about it soon.

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

This is amazing coverage for FIRST. Its nice to see the goverment and society finally understands what we do for 6 weeks every year. And congrats to team 623 for your performance in such an important opportunity!

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I feel like this quote is going to go right up there with "FIRST is like WWE but for smart people." Radio Shack...oh man, I wish :rolleyes:

Congrats to 116 and 623 for being invited to this awesome event! You guys put up a really good show [:

Thank you Vince for the link, and Dave for the pictures. By the way, DID he come to White Castle? ;)

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As a veteran press spokesman, please ENUNCIATE when you're talking to the Press, especially the WH Press pool. You know that they are hard of hearing!!!

From http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...112301978.html

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

So im the guy who stood in front catching the balls. the reason why the press couldnt hear me or the other guy was because we didnt have microphones and the crowd was laughing so hard. also it was a pretty big room. Also my quote in response to "Can you get the stuff at radio shack" was " Not Quite". this experience was a great honor. i cant believe this actually happened. Obama seems to really mean what he said so hopefully he can pull this off. Also 623's "Cougar Cannon" is now mythbusters approved.

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

In general, a valid comment. However in this particular case it really was not their fault. The transcript was prepared from the video/audio feed, and not by anyone in the room. Even though it was known in advance and very clear that Brian and Steven were going to be part of the program, they were not miked for the event by the WH sound team. We could hear them very clearly in the room (and when they said that the game was named "Lunacy" the whole room burst out laughing). But they were not picked up by the fixed mics on the cameras at the other side of the room. So we should cut them some slack.

-dave


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Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

Also dont hate on obama for the radio shack quote. he was asking that having inspected the electrical components of our robot. He has no clue about where we get our parts. he was expressing genuine interest in our robot. also if after this speech the only thing you can take away from it is that he made a silly quote about radio shack then you clearly didnt pick up the message he was trying to convey.
Heres the link to the uncut film footage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33_nZaOUWYw

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

What Obama was doing with the Radio Shack comment was "making a joke." If you don't get the joke, folks, send me a PM and I'll see if I can explain it for you. I'm all in favor of public figures making themselves look silly, but this wasn't a mistake -- he did it on purpose.

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

Is it VEX related?

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

Also cougar cannon was the name of our robot. he didnt come up with a name a good as that. we did. so... the president didnt really make any mistakes. the only mistakes ive seen is the nytimes caption of the photo says brian hortelano when it should really say brian hortelano and steven harris. brian was out of pic controling the robot and im in the pic. also the nytimes states that the whole robot was built by two students in six weeks. not true. 30 students, six weeks.

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

Give the media a break, its great that they are covering everything and putting these photos and videos online. This will create a lot of publicity and support for FIRST. Its not a big deal if they get a few facts wrong, overtime they will become familiar with the program.

This is excellent news for both FIRST and all other related educational competitions. Can't wait to see the impact this has.

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

This is very cool news. Congratulations to team 116 and 623. Hopefully this will mean better things for FIRST in the near future.

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The White House also posted a Q/A session with Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Dr. John P. Holdren on the project: Sec of Ed and Science & Tech Director Comments About FIRST

See the section that begins at 7:06 to hear what they think of FIRST.

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

Thanks Vince for posting this.

We just heard the Secretary of Education echo Dean's question "Why can't we have a robotics team in every high school?"

It sure looks like we have our work cut out for us early this year!

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

If you are reading hate or lack of understanding the meaning of a joke in my post then you are reading your own ideas into what I posted.


I said I loved it.

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Surprised no one has asked it yet: Will Obama be in Atlanta for the championship?

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

Were Grant and Tory busy? o.O

Nevertheless- awesome. Just awesome. Congrats to both teams for being there!

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A few of the utes mentioned it. That's why I didn't quote anyone in particular and I certainly wasn't aiming anything at you.

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

So - while I was having a meltdown over the fact that my son thinks my turkey is always dry (we are going to try a turkey brine this year), my husband came flying into the room, "Jane, Jane, do you know about the Connect A Million Minds initiative? It's all over the local news! They showed Dean Kamen talking to President Obama!" They were explaining the Time Warner Cable connection. It was a lot of fun listening to my husband be so excited about the STEM opportunities that will made available because of this type of interest and support being generated. This time it wasn't me doing all the talking, it was him. :) He could give me some coaching in my elevator pitch, I do believe.

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

I doubt it... but that is just me and I know based on past discussions that a lot of us have different opinions on this (which is a very good thing).:cool:

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

A good elevator pitch would be awesome.

I usually start mine with:

"I am a mentor for a competitive high school robotics team"

That always seems to get their attention, because their response is typically to look at me and say "What??"

Then I get to roll into the pitch about FIRST robotics. A little bit of competition description, a lot of the inspiration angle, a laundry list of benefits for students/community/mentors etc.

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

This is a great thing for FIRST. I wonder if Obama got his line about NCAA basketball players from Dean Kamen...

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

I know that the President was asked at least three different times if he would come to the Championships. He did not make any commitment, but he didn't absolutely decline either. Given the demands on his schedule, I would not have expected anything different this far in advance (e.g. this event was originally scheduled to take place on November 10, but at the last minute it was rescheduled when the President's plans changed so that he could go to Texas for the memorial service at Fort Hood).

-dave



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Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

Good point Dave. I didn't realize that the fixed mics were further than the video mics. It's a shame that they didn't mike Brian and Steven; you guys did a very good job demonstrating the robot as well. I was bouncing off of the walls to see the proverbial wheels in the President's head turning when he was "inspecting" the robot.

My favorite part was where he was essentially reading off Dean's talking points. In fact, other than hyping the Recovery Act (keeping Detroit from becoming a complete wasteland since 2009! ;) ) his entire speech could've been a Dean Speech

It's clear from the context that pretty much everything the President said regarding the robot was in jest, from "keeping an eye on those robots in case they try anything" to "Where are they aiming right now?" to "This is all stuff you can get at Radio Shack?" As far as laying off the press, however, I give no quarter. We need to spoonfeed talking points to the press to keep them from Rita Skeetering us. Elevator speeches too - everyone should have one.

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

Concerning IndySam

my comment was aimed at the person who compared radioshack obama to wwe bush.

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

Please explain how that is "hate on Obama."

Bush's WWE quote is something I remember with great joy.

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

Seconded on the loving it. It shows interest and it got a chuckle out of me.

I don't read it as "hating on" Obama at all. Honestly if making a joke at something the President said is "hating on him" someone needs to grow some thicker skin and realize that the President is human just like the rest of us and we can laugh at jokes or flubs he makes.

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

My apologies, i just interpreted the Bush quote another way than you did. I thought the comparison was meant to belittle the president but i was wrong. No hard feelings. :)

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

Yeah, I was going to say...as the one who originally compared the two quotes, I didn't intend to insult/belittle either president :/ I just feel like they could both sum up the general idea of FIRST to someone who doesn't know about it. Almost everyone knows what the WWE is, so comparing FIRST to it helps emphasize the scale of the program. Asking about RadioShack means that we have to refute the statement, so we have the opportunity to show how expensive and complex our robots are (sponsorsssss!)

This could go in the elevator pitch thread, too :/

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

Maybe Obama was thinking about VEX?:D

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

My bookie tells me that there is better than a 50% chance the president shows up in Atlanta this year. If not this year then 75% next year.

That assumes no unseen emergencies, crisis, summits, or other things that will divert his attention.

The president has three things he wants to accomplish. 1) healthcare, 2) energy, and 3) education. FIRST addresses all three of these but from a tangible policy level it really hits energy and education.

Okay - I do not have a bookie but I'll take the odds.

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

You don't even want to joke about a thing like that. Having a sitting president visit a large public arena full of mysterious-looking hardware would give the Secret Service the screaming fantods. The disruption of the event would be incredible, too. My personal preference would be to have the President appear on video, not in person.

(Of course, if FTC 417 doesn't win, I won't have to worry about it at all. :) )

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

For those of you at the Houston Championships (2003): Would you be willing to go through that type of security, but tighter, just so the President could be at the Championship?

(For those that weren't there, every time you took a robot through into the Reliant, it, and any backpacks you carried, were searched for whatever they were looking for. The gates were crowded; I found another one that didn't have a line but had a security guy. I understand that the Astrodome staff wanted to search incoming toolboxes until they were told that they'd have to do several hundred of them, with several thousand impatient high school students waiting to get in.)

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

I'm going to do a find and replace, replacing "public arena" with "factory".

You don't even want to joke about a thing like that. Having a sitting president visit a large factory full of mysterious-looking hardware would give the Secret Service the screaming fantods. The disruption of the event would be incredible, too. My personal preference would be to have the President appear on video, not in person."

Sounds just as justifiable, right? Except that the President has toured several factories across the United States over the past year:

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefi...in-ohio-friday
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2008..._friday_m.html
http://lightfromtheruins.blogspot.co...actory-in.html
http://thepage.time.com/pool-report-...glass-factory/

So would it be possible? Yes, I'm sure the Secret Service would find a way (The President has already had people with actual AR-15s outside rallies).

The pre-recorded video would be easier logistically and schedule wise, but wouldn't have the same impact as the if given in person. A live webcast would, but I think the ideal solution would be to have something funny that's scripted like when Obama appeared on The Colbert Report during his week of reporting from Iraq for the Armed Forces, ordering Colbert to shave his head for the troops. Something like Obama signing an executive order mandating that Sasha and Malia pick up their toys, and having them build a robot to do it for them would probably be quite funny and resonate with students better than just a canned "stay in school speech". Or maybe have Obama appear with a veteran from the war with Dean's robotic arm, thanking the students as future scientists and engineers for creating in the future devices such as Dean's robotic arm that could make the lives of those who fought for our freedom better.

Actually, Dean could use that advice as well. ;) Students nowadays are living in the Jon Stewart and Stephan Colbert generation. We like our news with comedy and intelligent satire*. If Dean throws some well-crafted humor and satire throughout his speeches, you won't see too many people sleeping through it anymore.

* Even though many people call them "fake news", regular watchers of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report on average scored higher than most other news networks in Pew Research studies. Why? Because no one would get the jokes on these shows if they didn't already have strong background knowledge of the news.

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

The question is would the hassle of the necessary security be worth the national publicity and just plain coolness of having the POTUS attend?

I think it would be very worth it.

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

They have people that are pretty good with security and there is a lot that goes on that isn't publicized or flaunted. I'm sure they can get it done smoothly if they do it at all.

FIRST is the sport of the mind and we would like the CMP to be the Olympics of this sport. Unfortunately the CMP doesn't have the prestige or cache of the Olympics and therefore we don't have that same level of security.

For those of you that lived through the Olympics in Atlanta there was miles of chain link fence with barbed wite and thousands of highly trained security personnel with very intimidating arms in a constant swirl around the Olympic Village the campus of Georgia Tech. As much as I'd like the CMP become as large as the Olympics I don't savor the concept of turning it into an armed camp.

For those of you that went to the CMP the spring after 9/11 and if you paid close attention there was a LOT more security blended into the background.

I don't know if the maximum impact comes from the Friday morning opening or Saturday afternoon closing. The press corp would like a Friday thing. The rest of us might like a Saturday thing. We have the stands maximized with attendees and it might make a better 'endcap' as we close the year and look forward to the future. So walking out of the CMP we collectively look toward a future filled with sugarplums and STEM happiness.

There are a lot of reasons for making the event secure as possible, POTUS or not.

There is an excellent long term strategic advantage to having POTUS making a brief appearance at the CMP opening or closing ceremony, or even in the pits. We need this to happen with regularity. Every POTUS should visit at least once in their term.

We just have to step up to the challenge and build into our thinking and planning things like security and bringing in VIPs such as POTUS and other political and corporate leaders. All of these folks are stakeholders in what we love to do and we are going to have to make it happen. I don't mind putting up with a little extra inconvenience.

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

Some people (like me) crack jokes to show humility in that which they don't understand. For an instant in the public spotlight, those students were much much smarter than he was. I took Obama's Radio Shack joke as a way for him to beat the critics to that point.

If we flood the white house with written letters requesting some sort of presence at an event, I'm sure he or his administration would make an effort. Keep in mind that if we want more exposure to the public we should pursue the presidential avenue. Yet if we want more exposure to the policy makers then we should pursue attendance of the Education Department and Congress. I honestly have no problem with pursuing both, but it will take the majority of teams to put forth the effort (no just those purusing CA....).

Perhaps one of the most critical things we could convince him to do is to watch a Regional's webcast, or appear at the D.C. Regional briefly and/or unannounced to the public (it's less than 5 minutes from the W.H. to the regional ....). Then perhaps he would realize that the message of FIRST is one of the only STEM initiatives in the entire country that is fully aligned with his educational goals. From there he can decide for himself that FIRST is the best due to the close collaboration of industry engineers with the students. That is the first step, and is key in my opinion.

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

I understand the desire to have the President at the Championship event. That said, the places of inspiration that showcase collaborations are in the shops and the pits. For there to be support for change in our educational system, the inspiration has to make a huge impact on the schools' curriculums, spaces, stipends for the mentors, and educational/extracurricular priorities. The show isn't going to highlight the shop/space deficits or lack of mentor stipends that many of our teams face. It can be used as a platform, yes.

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

Seem like sneaking into the DC regional pits would be the good way to meet the students and mentors whereas speaking at the CMP would be a more a STEM recognition and policy oriented activity. Both are needed.

I'm not sure there is a huge need to get the administrations attention at this point but more along the lines of letting FIRST hq get their ducks in a row.

Inside of 6 weeks FIRST has made a presence in front of the administration and the Congress. In a few more weeks states will make their initial bid in the Race to the Top. Teams could/should try to touch bases with their Senators and Congressmen during the upcoming break and make sure they are aware of what is out there regarding the STEM push because as soon as the healthcare thing is behind us it will be on to energy and education.

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

I seem to remember that President Bush went to Iraq, completely unannounced, a few years back around this time of year. If they could keep it secret until it happened, it might be quite possible to pull it off, especially at the D.C. Regional where security could presumably be quietly enhanced without arousing comment.

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

Absolutely Amazing!

To think... one of "our" robots was inspected by the Commander in Chief. It's almost enough to make all of the bitterness from losing the VH-71 contract just melt away.

Kudos to 623 and grats on a job well done!

I've been involved with FIRST Robotics for eight years and to see it start to gain the momentum and recognition it deserves is so touching to my heart. It is because of the people, here on this forum, that I earned my Engineering Degree and went on to work for the President as a part of Lockheed Martin on the VH-71.

Now, faced with unemployment I harbor no regrets but am actually very much encouraged to become a High School Physics teacher under this President's Administration. In a very real way, I have bled for this country by means of broken braincells, eye strained papers and dangerous late nighters.

FIRST has been an incredible opportunity. We all know that, but in time so will the whole country as well. It was FIRST that pushed me to be my best despite adversity. It was FIRST that encouraged me earn my degree. It was FIRST that motivated me and gave me the chance to FIRST educate and inspire young minds.

I have shook the hands of the Pilots who have flown the President. However, that chance did not come from working on his new ride... It came from attending a Regional hosted by the US Naval Academy.

Well, I'm off to class. Time to hit to books some more.

Congrats again to all the teams this season and see you in 2010!

Re: White House announces major STEM initiative
 

The Mythbusters just posted some great video of the event on the Discovery Channel web site.

Well, they tried. :)


-dave





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