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Re: Trying to develop holistic curriculum. Need assistance.
Jesse, our team's head coach, is teaching a robotics course this year. It's independent of the team, but there are a number of students who are in both, including my youngest son, Perry (far left in my WAI). While Jesse does know most if not all of the material, he specifically decided to make this a "teach yourself" course. There are several internet-capable computers in the class, and using a cell phone as a web browser to learn about robotics and related topics is fair game. Students helping each other is encouraged. Everything you need to know to do the coursework is on the internet - somewhere. Deadlines are real, but negotiable. This is totally out of phase with late 20th and early 21st century "lead you by the hand" teaching, but far more in phase with the real world. And yes, a significant fraction of the class is failing.
Back in the real world, I've been serving on a number of "vacancy panels" at my office. These panels provide advisory information to the selecting official (the person who decides whom to hire). The thing that I have forcibly re-learned here is that while specific, detailed knowledge and training lets people come up to speed faster, general knowledge of how to find out and and how to lead are better in the long run, especially for positions where people are expected to lead or be innovative. These are the points that we should be teaching in schools, and that many FIRST programs (those that I would consider "better", independently of how well they compete) provide. I certainly know that at the upper levels, I'd rather hire someone who can pass Jesse's course with a B or C than someone who can pass a "spoon-fed" physics course with an A or B; we hire scientists and engineers to creatively push the envelope, not to regurgitate old knowledge.
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If you can't find time to do it right, how are you going to find time to do it over?
If you don't pass it on, it never happened.
Robots are great, but inspiration is the reason we're here.
Friends don't let friends use master links.
Last edited by GeeTwo : 11-11-2015 at 22:55.
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