i don't think that every FIRST student should go into science/technology as their future.. or that their FIRST experience has been 'failed' if they don't...
I think a great thing about participating in FIRST, whether you work on the robot or not, is that you are opened to the world of science and technology and get an early jump on the boat to where the future of the world is heading..
soon, anything and everything will be infused with the technological bug.. it's more of a recoginition of it's importance and usefulness in life...
I was in engineering- and transferred to System Dynamics.. which is a Social Science major.. and I have a concentration in public policy. The job uses technology to predict and analyze the outcomes of certain public policy changes (i.e. how a tax cut would effect the middle-class and so on) as well, on a broader spectrum, analyze the relationship between society and technology and their interacting effects on one another. It's crazy, it's cool.. and it's what I see as the bridge between the future and the past.. the new and old generations.. between those kids that come out knowing how to use a computer and my mom who still doesn't fully understand email or IM.
So if you do FIRST and don't become an engineer- I say it's all good. At least you come up with likely a deeper appreciation to what technology can do for things and people.
If that makes any sense!!
To give you an idea of what my major's like (cause everyone always asks at least 5 times!) here's the description of one of my classes for A-term:
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SS 1202. SOCIOLOGICAL CONCEPTS AND COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS.
Cat. I
The aim of this course is to give students a general idea of the nature sociology while illustrating concepts using examples from a variety of societies to enhance one's comparative perspective. The secondary theme of the course is to focus on what field of sociology can offer those interested in the social implications of technological change and the social processes that shape science and technology. The course begins with a review of the debate over the nature of technology, whether it is more properly viewed as an aspect of social structure or culture, an integral part of society or a force external to it. Cases drawn from around the world and different technical fields are then developed both to address these questions and to illustrate various ways in which one might go about studying society-technology interaction effects. Classic sociological issues such as the distribution of wealth and power, intergroup relations, family structures and the nature of community are all covered as the cases unfold.
The cases covered range from the impact of disasters on different kinds of communities to a comparative analysis sof the space agencies of Europe, the U.S. and Japan, and the different kinds of technology they tend to produce. Such observations are placed in the context of their differing processes of modernization and international positions.
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gotta love it!! later gators.