Quote:
Originally Posted by Depreciation
All im really hearing is the expected cliches, and that the students on these teams are learning..
If the students of these said teams are learning a bunch from all this well great! that doesnt mean the way they are doing it is right or dare I say GP, and yes like I said FIRST is still an extremely fun experience. Im just pointing out but a single problem which I have found to be a hindrance to the experience, I'm not attacking FIRST or the FIRST community in any way
"immature jealousness"? Your calling my opinion immature for thinking that teams that are supposedly being professional and gracious but still put themselves at a very obvious and extreme advantage is unfair and not so professional...
And as far as anonymous accounts not being allowed goes. I could tell you who I was, but it really wouldn't make a difference.
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Here is a cliche you won't hear all that often. FIRST isn't about learning, nor teaching for that matter.
Its not For Inspiration and Recognition of Science Teaching, its For Inspiration and Recognition Science and Technology. I argue that learning, is a byproduct of inspiration, and that inspiration goes a long way. That inspiration is what gets student to learn, whether by watching, doing, researching or going on to institutions of higher education. You wonder why super teams are perennial super teams? Its because students come and go, but inspired mentors are there for the long hall.
I will even go so far as to say that FIRST isn't even just about the students, macroscopically speaking it has very little to do with them. The point is to inspire the culture, not just students, but adults, college mentors, and innocent bystanders. Students are only students for 4 years, if they are inspired, they want to be active and to learn, if they are active and they learn, change happens, if change happens FIRST has succeeded.
You speak of NASA, I've never met a more inspired group of students, than the kids from Cocoa Beach ( Pink 233 ). They are as professional, humble, skilled, knowledgeable, and talented as any group of students out there. You know what I attribute that to? They've seen how its really supposed to be done, they've been inspired by it, they've learned from it, and they followed the amazing leadership they have over there. What happens four years down the road when someone makes the same comment and all those students are gone? I say the same exact thing because mentors, their constants, will still be doing what they do, and students will continue to be inspired by it.
Also, one last thing, teams don't win based on resources alone. Every year teams come from seemingly no where, with absolutely no resources, and they still manage to put together amazing, winning robots. Sitting there, and telling me that I have no shot, because our team doesn't have a single Mechanical Engineer, or because the only tools we have access to are a broken drill press and a beaten up band saw, is disheartening and nearly insulting. I'd like to think we will be able to compete every year, and we will fight as hard as we can to be as competitive as we can, but if you take a defeatist attitude about it, you've already lost.