Texas Testimoney Public / Higher Education

[Andrew Schuetze]

Mentors and students from the Toltechs, FRC 499 gave testimony today at the San Antonio hearing of the Select Committee for Public and Higher Education Finance.
http://www.house.state.tx.us/committees/295.htm

For those not familiar with Texas politics, our legislature only mets every other year as we just don't trust 'em So these hearings are a means of gathering public and stake holder input prior to the short legislative session next year, January - May.

We brought to the podium with us a 5th grade young lady from one of the schools we mentor. We made the case that robotics is encouraging students to pursue careers in science and engineering. The two girl tandem really impressed the elected officials and all became aware of efforts across the state to use robotics in education. They have one more hearing left. It is in the FIRST backyard of Houston, Texas. So get in touch with your reps and see if you can get on the agenda or if nothing else show up and attempt to get on the public comment portion.

COMMITTEE:Higher & Public Education Finance, Select
TIME & DATE:10:00 AM, Friday, May 16, 2008
See Below
CHAIR:Rep. Dan Branch
The Select Committee will meet at the
University of Houston Hilton Hotel
4800 Calhoun Road, HOUSTON, TX 77204.
Public and invited testimony will be taken on all matters pertaining to the coordination of public and higher education funding with a focus on dropout prevention, non-traditional students, and urban challenges.

Our invitation came from work in the build season and actually goes back to the pre-season when we invited our area officials to visit the team in the shop after meeting several of them last April in the capitol building during the Educational Robo Expo. One staffer who attended got in contact with a fellow staffer for the committee chairman and then ...

[lynca]

This sounds great, 2587 will try to be there in some capacity,

I'll send an email to the representative ( this link)

how did you contact the committee to get on the schedule ?

[lynca]

From my email, I was told this information,

The Public Testimony panel begins after the conclusion of the invited testimony portion. Although it is hard to assign a time, public testimony might begin at around 3:30pm.

The hearing is being held in the Shamrock Room (Room 261) at the Hilton University of Houston, which is located at 4800 Calhoun.

So for all of the robotics teams around Houston, if you are going to go at 3:30 , post on this thread so we can collaborate.

[Andrew Schuetze]

It looks like you have found the means to get on the public agenda. We were asked to give invited testimony. This came from doing 'Dean' type homework. Which resulted in this invite.

[Andrew Schuetze]

Andrew or anyone who attended the Houston hearing, please any comments.

[lynca]

I worked with a few other people in Houston to meet with the representative and relay the message about FIRST.

This is a small section of an email from a Texas Representative to me, you can see that the message is starting to get through! Great job to 499 for getting the ball rolling!

But, more importantly, I wanted to let you know that the committee just heard an extended presentation on robotics courses and robotics competitions at the Edgewood school district on Tuesday when the committee met in San Antonio. So it may be that your testimony would be duplicative of what we've already heard.

Whatever you decide, I'd like to personally learn more about what you are doing. I'm a Rice EE grad and I have a particular concern about the rigidness with which we are teaching math in K-12. Watching the robotics demonstration made me wonder whether the state ought design (or copy) courses like this so that students learn the math they need while actually seeing some purpose for it, and learn other skills at the same time.

[Andrew Schuetze]

Thanks for the update and kudos. Kudos to you as well for your sustained efforts the last few years. AusTinCans rookie team success now DiscoBots with similar success.

Hopefully, we have established a basis for follow up that could eventually lead to Texas supporting FIRST and other robotics programs.

Pencil in you calendar to participate in the second Texas RoboExpo at the capitol building in Austin next spring when the Legislature meets again. Senator Leticia Van dePutte has already agreed to sponsor the week long event again.