Quote:
Originally Posted by Woody1458
Anyone can watch Westcoast Choppers and see adults build things, but FIRST is great because it encourages kids to do the building and adults to do the watching.
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Um, no. FIRST encourages mentors to show students what engineering is and how rewarding it can be. FIRST encourages teams to establish ways for students to be inspired by what is possible.
FIRST does
not, either explicitly or implicitly, "encourage kids to do the building".
Quote:
Originally Posted by Abwehr
Telling an inner-city team that they don't "get it" because they don't have engineers does no one good.
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It's the teams who
choose not to have engineers as an important resource, and who are
proud of that choice, who "don't get it."
Quote:
Originally Posted by DanTod97
If completely student built robots are blocking off an entire avenue towards inspiration and learning, how is it not true that completely mentor built robots are as well.
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Oh, that's easy. The
I in
FIRST stands for
Inspiration. Are you not inspired by a well-designed, well-engineered, well-built, effective, game-winning machine?
Come to think of it, you probably are not. Based on your stated dislike of powerhouse, dominating, game-winning teams, I suspect that you'd be likely to resent a competitive robot that you didn't build yourself. If so, I would have to say that you "don't get it". This isn't supposed to be about building robots and winning competitions. It's about being inspired by robots and successes, whether or not you built them or won with them yourself.