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Unread 19-05-2013, 11:28
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Team 3958
AKA: Conor Sheehy
FRC #3958 (Schrödinger's Cat)
Team Role: Mechanical
 
Join Date: May 2013
Rookie Year: 2012
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Posts: 5
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Re: FIRST Classroom Integration

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill_B View Post
My response to this question is to ask if the utterer is familiar with fitness gear. (see attachments) Ever see any of that stuff in real life, outside a gym? No? Then why do they exist? Fitness of body requires one sort of exercise, fitness of mind requires a much different bunch of exercise, practice, and discovery. Couple that with "Would you like us to figure out exactly what you're going to do in real life and show you ONLY how to do that?"
Bill_B has a very good point to be made, that being said, I feel that one of the most useful and motivating things in school has been seeing abstract concepts being used in real-life scenarios. While infinitesimally moving through High School, students lose focus of why they are learning because they do not see what the objective of their advanced knowledge is. The genius of FIRST for me is that students become more motivated to work harder in school because they see a light at the end of a dark tunnel. In an ideal world, FIRST would be visible to all students as an opportunity to take advantage of, but it is not. At my school, even though there is a team, very few people are familiar with it because they don't see a distinction between "nerd club" and FIRST and they pass it off as an unfulfilling activity v. Football, Basketball, Baseball, or Hockey. Injecting FIRST into regular class curriculum or electives is beneficial to students motivationally and beneficial to FIRST for exposure. The FIRST (see what I did there) hill that people need to get over in order for Science and Technology to be understood better, is for school administrators and politicians to appreciate what they mean and practical application. Getting these people to a point where they understand and appreciate that is having them be a part of the FIRST community.