Quote:
Originally Posted by wilmo
I am writing a research paper for a class on the effects of technology education in high school on college students. Could you please tell me about how FIRST or technology classes such as the PLTW program have helped you in college?
Thanks,
Wilmo
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Well PLTW didn't help me as those classes just showed up the year after I graduated

. FIRST helped me in that it gave me a taste of the engineering/comp sci field and in that sense it was a very valuable experience. I mostly did mechanical stuff but now I am majoring in CS at CMU. FIRST introduced me to 3DS max and I have taken an interest in animation and I will further pursue this field when able (darn prerequisites. I shouldn't need 4 math classes to take an animation class

). As for high school classes preparing me for college, well now the thought seems like a joke. The bar is so much higher in college. In high-school, you can get away with just paying attention in class and you are pretty much guaranteed to pass. If you screw up you are given plenty of makeup opportunities. However this is not the case in college. If you fail a midterm (usually 3 per class + the final), you might as well just drop the class. It is not enough to just parrot back information but your work needs to be 100% your own. Even collaboration with other students is somewhat limited. The professors have their own rules as to when and to what extent collaboration is allowed. Unauthorized collaboration/not noting who you collaborated with is considered cheating and grounds for expulsion from the university. In my math classes, were not allowed to use a theorem unless we prove it ourselves (and put that calculator away, not that it would help!). In my English class last semester, if your paper was a summary of other people's works, you would receive an F. They expect your thoughts, your work, your own arguments and they go over everything with a magnifying glass. There is a huge emphasis to put ownership on your own work and not just lean on other peoples' works as in high-school. We are not given grades based on effort and partial credit/mercy points are not handed out frequently. Sometimes it can get very frustrating when you best is just not good enough. I can spend all week studying for a test and still only score 50%. Thank God for curves!