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Re: A Request
The OP's Request is not "Talk to me about the production value of FTC" or "Talk to me about how you relate to FTC". It is "Please do not look down on FTC". So many of these replies are justifying the superiority complex. Why? Where does this need come from?
I am certain, absolutely certain, that both programs are valuable. You might enjoy one over the other - that doesn't mean that one program is better and there is no need to make the argument.
Yes, in Michigan FTC serves as a JV or training camp for FRC - I've heard of other regions where this is also the case. That's not the model everywhere. And I don't think it's an appropriate way to distinguish the programs as we grow the reputation of FIRST. New York City, for example, does not use FTC as a training program for FTC, with perhaps one exception. FTC allows the engineering program that FRC develops after school to have a more formal component in the classroom. Carnegie Mellon has created fantastic lesson plans for FTC architectures, not FRC. A number of schools implement both programs to address engineering education informally and more formally - using a tangible product. Without the appeal of FIRST, it is rather challenging to build engineering curricula in an "average" New York City" public school.
FTC and FRC are both high school programs in New York City. They might serve the same student groups to scaffold learning in the classroom, different student groups in the same school to navigate challenges of after-school participation, or different schools to navigate the challenges of a rigorous school culture, very limited space, some other related issue.
I will concede that the quality of FTC events and the organization of FTC information can serve to improve, but that's up to the FIRST community, us, to address. FTC is organized very differently. If we say, this isn't FRC and I don't like it, then the program will continue to be marginalized as a result. The advantages and the outstanding results of the FTC engineering notebook and the structural iterative process are too good to pass up. Stop the strifin'.
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New York City FIRST
nycfirst.org
Last edited by sammyjalex : 12-05-2014 at 11:18.
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