Today I received the May edition of Popular Mechanics (
http://www.popularmechanics.com/), and was pleasantly surprised by what was inside. It was a FIRST Robotics supplement.
Its a shame that I have not been able to find a like on the web to the contents of this supplement, but I am however very pleased with how it presents FIRST as a whole!
I think that media coverage like this is something that is greatly beneficial to the FIRST message. Popular Mechanics has had several previous articles about FIRST, and previous competitions (just go to the web site and do a search). But I think that since the current supplement is actually a completely separate booklet, more people will read it.
Having read it myself (of course) I think that it does an excellent job describing all of the hard work that goes into building a robot. The article explains what the goal of FIRST is, to teach kids about science and engineering at a younger age, so that they can get hands on experience, instead of just reading a textbook. It also features interviews with Dean Kamen, Woodie Flowers, team members from Fe Madiens(#2265), and pictures of teams #67, #3128, #118.
I guess what I am trying to say is that I believe that we (as a FIRST community) are doing an excellent job of presenting ourselves to the rest of the world. We are actively reaching out to bring new people into this amazing organization and helping everyone, not just students, mentors included learn and grow as a community with a commitment to a better future through science and engineering.
So, if you get popular mechanics, show this supplement to your team, read it over, and be proud that you are apart of FIRST!!