Bills Blog- Yes, I’m already counting down to kickoff 2012

[JesseK]

Originally Posted by EricH

VEX vs. FIRST may be rather silly.

But FIRST HQ seems to be stuck on "You're FIRST or you're no good" mindset.

Aye, this is the impression I get too.

SeaPerch & ZERO robotics are also on that list of "we don't want to hear about it". 2 years ago we were "not allowed" to bring a SeaPerch bot into our pit for display. In addition the judges cut the kids off when they talked about it. We brought it anyways, we talked about it anyways. We did win EI that year, yet we won EI twice this year because of our 4 FTC teams & 30 FLL teams (according to the announcer during the award ceremony).

On the same token, we (well, 1 teacher on our team, 1 on another; mentors support them where we can) have worked our tail off in getting STEM into the curriculum. Actually, it goes much further than that, but I can't say much until more things about it solidify. We even have an end goal that's quite unique and parallels (but doesn't compete with) FIRST and its mission. The goal even uses FIRST's programs (and VEX for that matter...). Yet the teacher was told, unofficially I think, that curriculum is NOT in any of FIRST's goals. I believe it because curriculum isn't mentioned in any of FIRST's statements, anywhere. I can only conjecture that they think the sports model falls apart because of it.

As a sort of counter point to my own argument, 2 years ago in Florida when we briefly met with Paul Godonis, he said he didn't want school board support behind FIRST. Actually in hind sight, IMO that part is for the best -- for reasons best said elsewhere. Yet because of those reasons I've come to realize one major thing: while FIRST doesn't deserve the "sunshine and kittens" deification that sometimes happens on CD, they DO have a plan that isn't totally diabolical and was created by some pretty competent people.

Basically, if you want awards, tie what you're doing into some perspective that works for FIRST. Toss that perspective into some silly story (we had fairies and wizards in ours ... I was the knight) to help the judges read it easier, and voila!
(Thank God I didn't have to wear the knight costume the kids suggested...)