White House announces major STEM initiative

[JesseK]

That would be Team #623, though I expect 116 was still there in some capacity since they hail from Herndon H.S.:

And then we've got some students from -- some wonderful students from some wonderful schools: Oakton High School in Vienna, Virginia; Longfellow Middle School in Fairfax, Virginia; the Washington Mathematics Science Technology Public Charter High School here in D.C., and the Herndon High School in Herndon, Virginia. Welcome, everybody. (Applause.)

another interesting blurb from the transcript:

And today, I'm announcing that we're going to have an annual science fair at the White House with the winners of national competitions in science and technology. If you win the NCAA championship, you come to the White House. Well, if you're a young person and you've produced the best experiment or design, the best hardware or software, you ought to be recognized for that achievement, too. Scientists and engineers ought to stand side by side with athletes and entertainers as role models, and here at the White House we're going to lead by example. We're going to show young people how cool science can be.

[dlavery]

A few pictures from today's event -

President Obama announces a major STEM education initiative, while standing in front of the Oakton High School (Team 623) FIRST robot.


Afterwards the President greeted the students at the event, including Epsilon Delta (Team 116). The President was very specifc - he wanted to have a group photo with all the students - "and no adults allowed!"


The team sat next to Jamie Hyneman and Adams Savage from The Mythbusters during the event. Possible highlight of the day - getting Adam to laugh right in the middle of his phone call by asking if he wanted to go to lunch with us at White Castle.


The entire event was extremely impressive, and both Team 116 and Team 623 were very honored to be asked to represent the FIRST community during this announcement. The President's clarity on the absolute need for a focused effort to increase the importance of education, and STEM topics in particular, was empassioned and desperately needed. We all are looking forward to the effects that this initiative will have. Based on what we have learned already, some of these effects (such as the new programming through the Time-Warner stations) will start to show up almost immediately.

And the implicit promise to have the winners of future FIRST competitions come to the White House was not missed on any of us!

-dave


.-

[IndySam]

“This is all stuff you can get at Radio Shack?” Mr. Obama said.

No, the students said, shaking their heads.


Love it.

[billbo911]

Originally Posted by blaxbb

"Why doesn't every high school in this country have a robotics team?" - John P. Holdren

There are a couple simple answers to this excellent question.

1) Generally, there has been very poor support for these programs at the District level.

2) In direct response to #1 above, there is a lack of $$$$.

So Mr. Holdren, how are you going to change this?

[Vince]

You can now watch the event:President Obama's "Education To Innovate" Campaign

You may even recognize some folks in the audience.

[Andy Baker]

Originally Posted by Vince

You can now watch the event:President Obama's "Education To Innovate" Campaign

You may even recognize some folks in the audience.

Thanks, Vince.

The AndyMark operations just shut down for 20 minutes to watch this video. It was time well spent. Kudos to all who were involved and made this happen.

Sincerely,
Andy Baker

[Rich Kressly]

Thanks for the link, Vince!

[Jonathan Norris]

Sounds like an good initiative from the President, but I was personally disappointed by their seemingly lack of knowledge of the FIRST Robotics Program. In the press release and articles about the announcement they keept on referring to the 'cougar cannon'..... which I found as a pour way to describe a FIRST Robot, and FIRST probably doesn't like thats their main mention in the press releases. Its one of those things that the media thinks sounds cool, but doesn't describe what a FIRST Robot really is. I was hoping for more, I have yet to figure out how FIRST and FIRST teams will be able to benefit from the program. Hopefully we will see more details about it soon.

[scottydoh]

This is amazing coverage for FIRST. Its nice to see the goverment and society finally understands what we do for 6 weeks every year. And congrats to team 623 for your performance in such an important opportunity!

[Karibou]

Originally Posted by IndySam

[i] “This is all stuff you can get at Radio Shack?” Mr. Obama said.

I feel like this quote is going to go right up there with "FIRST is like WWE but for smart people." Radio Shack...oh man, I wish

Congrats to 116 and 623 for being invited to this awesome event! You guys put up a really good show [:

Thank you Vince for the link, and Dave for the pictures. By the way, DID he come to White Castle?

[Swan217]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Norris

Sounds like an good initiative from the President, but I was personally disappointed by their seemingly lack of knowledge of the FIRST Robotics Program. In the press release and articles about the announcement they keept on referring to the 'cougar cannon'..... which I found as a pour way to describe a FIRST Robot, and FIRST probably doesn't like thats their main mention in the press releases. Its one of those things that the media thinks sounds cool, but doesn't describe what a FIRST Robot really is. I was hoping for more, I have yet to figure out how FIRST and FIRST teams will be able to benefit from the program. Hopefully we will see more details about it soon.

As a veteran press spokesman, please ENUNCIATE when you're talking to the Press, especially the WH Press pool. You know that they are hard of hearing!!!

From http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...112301978.html

So, with that, just as proof of the extraordinary promise of American young people, I'd like to invite Steven Harris (ph) and Brian Ortelano (ph) from Oakton High -- High School to come up here and demonstrate what their team has built. And it's flashing, so far. I don't see it whirling.
(LAUGHTER)
Where are they?
Give them a big round of applause.
(APPLAUSE)
All right. What do we got going here?
(UNKNOWN): So, we built our robot to compete in a competition called (inaudible).
(LAUGHTER)
And so, the object of the game is to shoot the balls, that they called the moon rocks, into moving goals (inaudible) team's robots.
OBAMA: OK.
(LAUGHTER)
(UNKNOWN): And (inaudible).
OBAMA: OK.
(LAUGHTER)
All right, let's see it toss the ball.
(LAUGHTER)
Now, what are they aiming at right now?
(LAUGHTER)

[qwertyuiop[]\]

So im the guy who stood in front catching the balls. the reason why the press couldnt hear me or the other guy was because we didnt have microphones and the crowd was laughing so hard. also it was a pretty big room. Also my quote in response to "Can you get the stuff at radio shack" was " Not Quite". this experience was a great honor. i cant believe this actually happened. Obama seems to really mean what he said so hopefully he can pull this off. Also 623's "Cougar Cannon" is now mythbusters approved.

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by Dan Swando

As a veteran press spokesman, please ENUNCIATE when you're talking to the Press, especially the WH Press pool. You know that they are hard of hearing!!!

In general, a valid comment. However in this particular case it really was not their fault. The transcript was prepared from the video/audio feed, and not by anyone in the room. Even though it was known in advance and very clear that Brian and Steven were going to be part of the program, they were not miked for the event by the WH sound team. We could hear them very clearly in the room (and when they said that the game was named "Lunacy" the whole room burst out laughing). But they were not picked up by the fixed mics on the cameras at the other side of the room. So we should cut them some slack.

-dave


.-.

[qwertyuiop[]\]

Also dont hate on obama for the radio shack quote. he was asking that having inspected the electrical components of our robot. He has no clue about where we get our parts. he was expressing genuine interest in our robot. also if after this speech the only thing you can take away from it is that he made a silly quote about radio shack then you clearly didnt pick up the message he was trying to convey.
Heres the link to the uncut film footage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33_nZaOUWYw

[Rick TYler]

What Obama was doing with the Radio Shack comment was "making a joke." If you don't get the joke, folks, send me a PM and I'll see if I can explain it for you. I'm all in favor of public figures making themselves look silly, but this wasn't a mistake -- he did it on purpose.