[KHall]

Thank-you Alan, you’re absolutely right. Our mission is to inspire. And if we accept that, then any discussion about learning is moot.

If I can bring Dr. Sullivan’s paper to your attention, and/or ask you to examine the AAAS and NRC standards I believe you’ll discover that FIRST is currently covering most of these standard’s goals. I’m just not sure that too many people realize how much FIRST is achieving.

From Dr. Sullivan’s 2007 research paper regarding AAAS Science standards:
“Robotics learning is strongly linked to these three goals of science literacy. First, robotics study requires utilization of four of the six thinking skills characteristic of scientifically literate people—namely, computation, estimation, manipulation, and observation. Second, students of robotics are engaged in science inquiry through both technological design and computer programming activities. Third, robotics teaches students about systems, one of the common themes in science education.”

So if you’re already achieving something, why not take credit for it?

Plus why would a mission statement prevent you from wanting to show your value to the educational community? Didn’t Dean say he wanted an FRC team in every high school? If you were a superintendent of a school system, wouldn’t you find verified results that align with accepted educational standards carry a lot of weight? I personally believe there are many such people out there who want to do what they know is best for their students. We need to give them what they need -- make it easier for them to adopt FIRST.

If nobody here sees the value of this, then I’ll drop it. I believe that we need to find ways to push more proven constructivist methods into the classrooms, and frankly, FIRST is low hanging fruit. The main idea here was assessment, and true to CD, we’ve drifted a bit.

FIRST is not considered a professionally administered education program because we do not currently perform formal assessments. Teachers are experts at assessment, and I am not. I simply asked if anyone was aware of the NWEA testing suggested by a professor who was trying to be helpful because he wanted to find a way to push FIRST (or at least its project oriented methods) into more schools. I still see no harm in asking about that.

KHall