NASA Grant and Chairmans

[wendymom]

Team 1902 Has been awarded a NASA grant to the North Carolina Regional but we would like to submit Chairmans at Florida. Is this allowed or are we forced to submit at North Carolina?

[Shmee]

Exploding Bacon! One of my brother's friends at Georgia Tech is from your team And he mentioned you guys would be at North Carolina (We'll be seeing you there!)

I *think* that NASA only requires a submission of Chairman's as in "Look at our Chairman's essay!!!" but not that you have to specifically apply for the award there.

Reading the requirements again (http://frc-grants.arc.nasa.gov/frc/app/directions.php), it doesn't seem like you'd be required to submit at North Carolina...

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by wendymom

Team 1902 Has been awarded a NASA grant to the North Carolina Regional but we would like to submit Chairmans at Florida. Is this allowed or are we forced to submit at North Carolina?

Wendy -

No problem. As long as it is submitted through the official FIRST awards process, we will get a copy. It does not matter which event you attend or submit towards.

-dave


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[James1902]

Originally Posted by dlavery

Wendy -

No problem. As long as it is submitted through the official FIRST awards process, we will get a copy. It does not matter which event you attend or submit towards.

-dave


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Whew! Thanks Dave, that was really making our team sweat like a bunch of pigs.

[wendymom]

Originally Posted by dlavery

Wendy -

No problem. As long as it is submitted through the official FIRST awards process, we will get a copy. It does not matter which event you attend or submit towards.

-dave


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Thank you Dave. I can quit twitching now

[David Brinza]

We found wording of the check-box at the start of the CA submission a little confusing:

We are submitting this only to meet the requirements of a NASA grant and do not wish to have this submission judged.

As I recall from last year, there was a checkbox to indicate the submission was submitted to fulfill the NASA Grant requirement, but it wasn't combined with the "do not judge" language. I expected to see a "NASA Grant" check-box this year, but not as it was written.

We left the box unchecked, because we see real value in having our submission judged.

P.S. The essay block "unformatting" (subject of other threads) was unwelcome as well. White space is a good thing. More trees will probably need to be cut down to print reformatted submissions.

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by David Brinza

We found wording of the check-box at the start of the CA submission a little confusing:

We are submitting this only to meet the requirements of a NASA grant and do not wish to have this submission judged.

As I recall from last year, there was a checkbox to indicate the submission was submitted to fulfill the NASA Grant requirement, but it wasn't combined with the "do not judge" language. I expected to see a "NASA Grant" check-box this year, but not as it was written.

We left the box unchecked, because we see real value in having our submission judged.

I agree that the wording of the check box was a bit clumsy. The intent is that the rookie teams that are not eligible to submit for the Chairmans Award, but are required to submit the equivalent statement to NASA as a requirement of the grant, would check this box. I would expect that everyone else that goes through the process of preparing a submission would want to have it judged.

-dave


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[N7UJJ]

Originally Posted by dlavery

I would expect that everyone else that goes through the process of preparing a submission would want to have it judged.

-dave


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Team 842 has submitted a Chairman's essay both last year and this year even though, as Hall of Famers, we were not eligible for the award. We felt the process of creating the essay is so valuable to the team and especially for those who are involved in the composition of the document, that we have continued submitting.

In all our years, we have yet to have our robot win a competition. It has not diminished one bit the value of our participation in preparing for the competitions. Its the process, not the trophy (or lack of) that is valuable. Same for the Chairman's submission.

[Tristan Lall]

Originally Posted by James1902

Whew! Thanks Dave, that was really making our team sweat like a bunch of pigs.

Pigs can't sweat.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Tristan Lall

Pigs can't sweat.

They also can't explode. Therefore, pigs that can explode can sweat...

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by N7UJJ

Team 842 has submitted a Chairman's essay both last year and this year even though, as Hall of Famers, we were not eligible for the award. We felt the process of creating the essay is so valuable to the team and especially for those who are involved in the composition of the document, that we have continued submitting.

In all our years, we have yet to have our robot win a competition. It has not diminished one bit the value of our participation in preparing for the competitions. Its the process, not the trophy (or lack of) that is valuable. Same for the Chairman's submission.

Allan-

Thank you, thank you, thank you for saying this. Your message is absolutely spot-on, and a wonderful reminder about the real value of the FIRST program. As build season draws to a close, it is entirely too easy to think that the focus is all about the robot and the competition. It is too easy to forget that the real goal is re-focusing of the cultural values of the country and creating a more technically-literate society. It is too easy to forget what is really important.

When I talk with students on my and many other teams, I bluntly put it this way: "as your potential future employer, I don't give a crap how many little toy trophies you picked up at some sports competition. When NASA is trying to figure out if we are going to hire you, we want to know if you are technically talented. We want to know if you can solve problems and can innovate. But most importantly we need to know that you know how to think, how to work with a group, and how to lead. Now tell we what experiences with your team have given you those skills..."

The answer to that question is never "well, we won second place at the Ham'N'Cheese Regional Robotics Competition." Instead, it is always a discussion about the interactions between the students and the mentors, and the lessons transferred. It is not about the robot they created, but rather with the process that they went through to create the robot.

Students that understand the criticality of that distinction will have employers fighting over them. The ones that don't get it will be making sandwiches for the ones that do.

-dave




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