Math...

[Doctorwho]

Personally, I'm not that great at math and going into FIRST I didn't really care for it. But after working on designing and building a robot and seeing what practical application knowing Algebra, Geometry, and Calculus was and experiencing it first hand and after that I felt that I understood it better.

I think that the issue today is that students are pretty much educated in a vacuum, students learn about the theroy and how to perform it, but not so much the actual practice. Put it this way if you went into FRC and had someone explain how to build a robot without you personally laying hands on any tools, would you have any interest in it?

Going hands-on with a subject sometimes rather than just relying on a textbook is what can get a student to see the value in a subject, the Apollo Program wasn't just a bunch of guys sitting around a table discussing how one would go to the moon it was about actually achieving that goal.

On the slide rule subject, one of those has got to be easier than using some of my TI-83's higher functions