Eating lead in 2000

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Posted by Fran .

Other on team #166, Team Merrimack, from Merrimack High School and Unitrode/R.S. Machines.

Posted on 6/1/99 7:30 AM MST


In Reply to: Daniel and Frank... posted by Joe Johnson on 5/31/99 8:48 PM MST:




I think Daniel is not unusual for a student. Many of our students are drawn in by the curiosity or a friend or the trip but the ones who stick it out to the end are really hooked . They love the challenge and the different problem every year and will probably never finish with a few days practice time no matter how much time you give them...we can always think of one more thing to change. Any longer would chase the companies away because it must affect their engineers work and the students school work suffers too. The hardest part is really finding the right combination of students and engineers to work as partners. The students love to show off their work and compete so now teams do demonstrations, mini-meets...........we even had a lunch time challenge with another local high school...5 mamtches in each school's cafgeteria...now that exposed us to lots of students that came to us the following year. On July 4th we put on a demonstration for the town so the community can see what we do (other than ask for money)..our robot is even on a float for the parade. I like the idea of demonstrating to the school board since in our town they tape and televise those meetings on our community channel.

Anyway back to the subject, the students are creative and therefore all these local competitions keep popping up so they get more playing time...every year there are more. I think Dean knew students would take it into their own hands..thats why they just loan out playing fields. The satisfaction really is in the challenge and creating the solution. As with any good activity there is a sense of loss when it is completed and you have 'nothing to do', as the teams mature they realize that this really is a year round project and the students take on more and more of the work with just a few nudges in the right direction. Well I'm rambling againtime to stop.



: Daniel from GRT and soon to be from Berkeley, and Frank from Wildstang and now with MIT are not your typical U.S.A. High School student.

: Both are outstanding leaders and I am sure will end up being outstanding engineers some day.

: But...

: They are not typical by any stretch of the imagination.

: Could most teams find leaders of their quality from among their ranks? I don't think so.

: So the question is what is FIRST?

: Mr. B. thinks he has the vision, I think I have the vision, Daniel has yet another view.

: Are we all blind men trying to discover the essence of an elephant (it's a rope, it's tree, it's a snake, etc.)?

: I think that perhaps it is time to say that we are talking about at least two different animals here.

: Mr. B. is convinced that this program belongs in the schools. Given that, then all the arguments about sustainability etc. carry the day.

: JoeJ is convinced that this program belongs in partnership with businesses. Given that, then many of my arguments make sense.

: I am ready to propose that there are 2 different elephants.

: Yes, it would be great if there we a high school sport that was somewhat FIRST like, but had the same game for a number of years with a well defined kit and a reasonable price tag and a season of (relatively low budget) events, etc.

: Yes it would be great if we got on TV and changed the entire culture of America, that involved high school kids in the design of the robots, but did not pretend high school kids could be turned into engineers in a 6 week program.

: So...

: When do we split into two leagues? The high school sport league and the inspiration league.

: I, seriously, think that there is value to both. (so much so in fact that I have been working with a former coach form our team to get the funding to make a similar idea, the Pontiac Robotics League, a reality -- those who have attended one of our team's 'FIRST in a Day' competitions will know sort of what I am thinking of)

: Does this add to the confusion or does it address some issues?

: Joe J.