CNN Special Featuring FIRST, Sunday 5/15

[Jon236]

Who told Soledad that St Louis was "Nationals"? But the show got the major points stated....leading the viewer to figure out that FIRST is the answer.

[Steven Donow]

This defijnitely was great for FIRST, showed FIRST in such a great light. Of course I couldnt help but nerdily see some inaccuracies Pennsylvania Regional, anyone? Gotta love the nerdy things that FIRST-ers notice and think about

[TD912]

If anyone missed it , it's being reaired at 11pm EDT, and again at 2am EDT:
http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/

[JB]

Originally Posted by stevend1994

This defijnitely was great for FIRST, showed FIRST in such a great light. Of course I couldnt help but nerdily see some inaccuracies Pennsylvania Regional, anyone?

Agreed...i'm fairly sure we didn't make it out of the quarters. Also I like the irony of them showing us loosing to MOE and then at the end they show us jumping around when we beat them at Chesapeake! lol

[Lil' Lavery]

I already regret my last post. Getting hung up in the details is, for lack of a better word, stupid.

Originally Posted by jb1403

Agreed...i'm fairly sure we didn't make it out of the quarters. Also I like the irony of them showing us loosing to MOE and then at the end they show us jumping around when we beat them at Chesapeake! lol

That jump was when you won the first match in the quarterfinals in Philadelphia. Notice that it was 1712 standing next to you.

[buildmaster5000]

I thought this documentary was well done, and will do FIRST a lot in terms of getting the word out. I was surprised how much it focused on STEM, and not on the skills that are actually required to compete in FRC. And then there is the whole "you only covered a small facet of FRC teams" argument, but I am willing to let that go because they were able to get their message across just fine. I just hope this will have the impact we all hope it can have.

[bam-bam]

(The whole documentary was focused on the education students are receiving, not FIRST!)

As blunt that may be, FIRST was used as a tool to several points across, like engaging students into STEM actively. O'Brien did a better job than what I would've done if she was following my team (it didn't happen, just an example). FIRST will garner a bit of attention from this- but I wouldn't go as far as to say that this was an impact.

Being a Hoosier, I loved it when they implied 111 was from Indiana. (sarcasm)

[falconmaster]

Being on the inside shows how much they must edit and cut to make it understandable for the general public. The let us see the pre screening and it had more facts about education and how teachers ate not respected in the US like in India. They also left out how only two students in the whole state of Tennessee are studying to be a physics teachers. The doc was about education in the US and they used FIRST as the vehicle. The true test is to see how people who don't know about FIRST react to it. We are all inside because we notice all the flaws, we need to step back and see what effect it has, then judge it.

[JohnBoucher]

I thought Dean came off very well and I actually wanted to hear more from him.

[PayneTrain]

Can't wait to head out to the Pennsylvania Regional next year. I might get lost!

The fact that the documentary had to be generalized so much can be considered an indictment on television viewers, but I'll chalk it up to me just being nitpicky.

Loved the documentary. Recorded it and talking to our officers about it this week.

[rcmolloy]

I did like most of the special and it was really intriguing even with out the mentions of FIRST. I still cannot believe most of the facts that were stated thought. I believe it's ridiculous that states alter their standardized tests just to have a majority of the students pass. Instead of mostly focusing on our military industrial complex that our government is, we should take much more time to focus on our actual future as well.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Fredi,
I have great respect for your team and this program helped increase that respect. Please pass along my best wishes for the continued success of your students. I hope that education in Tennessee and New Jersey and all states benefits from this doc. It shows more than anything, that there are students out there that want to learn, to do better, to improve their own lives and those around them. Thankfully, FIRST is there to help them realize some of their goals.

[rcmolloy]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

It shows more than anything, that there are students out there that want to learn, to do better, to improve their own lives and those around them. Thankfully, FIRST is there to help them realize some of their goals.

Al,

I just wanted to hit on this quote. Even though I do believe that the country does not pay enough attention to our education, I know that the apathetic ideas that are in many of American students it a leading factor.

For some, their will and want to learn is just non-existent. The only thing that they care about is something that may unproductive or impractical for the future. It can happen but it is completely difficult to motivate millions of kids. FIRST will do it some day but American society needs to jump on board.

[Deetman]

Originally Posted by rcmolloy

Al,

I just wanted to hit on this quote. Even though I do believe that the country does not pay enough attention to our education, I know that the apathetic ideas that are in many of American students it a leading factor.

For some, their will and want to learn is just non-existent. The only thing that they care about is something that may unproductive or impractical for the future. It can happen but it is completely difficult to motivate millions of kids. FIRST will do it some day but American society needs to jump on board.

I think one of the big problems today is that there is not one big, public, "cool" engineering feat that the country as a whole is united behind and inspired by like the space program was. I don't think anyone could deny that the space program inspired an entire generation of students.

That is not to say that there aren't any important problems to be solved today, in fact I'd argue that the problems needing solved today are more important. The difficulty is that there isn't a unified front exposing the public to these problems and treating them as "cool". FIRST is making an effort to do this as are other programs, but there is still work to do.

[AlecMataloni]

Dear CNN,

We're not from indiana.

Love, Wildstang