Quote:
Originally posted by Jnadke
This is why FIRST is important. FIRST teaches kids about understanding things, and not merely learning them. Although not all kids are changed by FIRST (this past weekend I had a kid try to tell me that hooking an alternator to the bot would generate unlimited energy), generally a lot of them are. It is important to not only learn how things work, but understand why they work.
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... FIRST also helps student apply concepts that they are learning in the classroom, into their everyday life. I know I personally have a hard time learning things if I have no idea how I am ever going to use them in "real life". One of the big turning points for me (in my education) was when I used basic trigonometry last year to find the incline of a slope. I was able to take something I had learned in the classroom, and use it to figure out something that was useful for me. Not just plugging numbers into a useless equation, but using it to figure out how to make a part for our robot. I have used knowledge gained in the classroom many times in FIRST, most of the time without even knowing it. As Woodie Flowers says, "Chalk and talk is dead." FIRST can't solve all of the world's problems (well, not yet, at least) but maybe by starting at the classroom level, we can make things better.
</semi-rant>
- Katie