Quote:
Originally Posted by Basel A
Most potential FIRST students (i.e. all students) weren't alive 53 years ago, haven't heard that speech, and have never been to the moon. The best way to convince them that joining a FIRST team will be good is not to discourage them, which is exactly what embracing "FIRST/STEM is hard" is doing. It's best to let them discover that it's fun before finding out that it's hard, so that, you know, they actually want to do it.
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You don't need to have been alive 53 years ago to appreciate the goal of landing on the moon, nor to appreciate the bigger meaning behind it when people talk about landing on the moon. Indeed, the idea of a "moonshot" doesn't literally mean going to the moon- it now means so much more.
I highly recommend Google's
Moonshot Thinking video, and reading
Larry Page's interview with Wired on moonshots.
To the best engineers, scientists, and thinkers, something that is "hard" isn't something to avoid; it is something that begs for us to prove that we can do it. Don't tell people that a team folded because "STEM is hard." and it quit. Tell them that "STEM is hard" and that they can do better- that STEM is built on the very idea of trying something, failing, and trying something different.