The Goals of FIRST

[jburstein]

FIRST was created to motivate "young people to pursue opportunities in science, technology and engineering." They have clearly been succesful in this goal, as Dean loves to point out there are nearly 1000 teams participating. And if you have ever set foot into the competition then you know that the enthusiasm is tangible... I mean if you don't call 150 people at SVR wearing pink bunny ears enthusiastic then... erm... I don't know what you'd call them. As Dean says every year, at every competition, in every speech he gives, FIRST has come a long way since it started. He always gives"a homework assigment" to bring in new teams, sponsors and mentors. The growth of FIRST is important, but sheer numbers of people is not the most critical area of growth at this moment.

The most needed type of growth is in FIRST's goals. FIRST's name, standing for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, states it's goal very clearly. Inspiration, hooking the interest of the student, is a critical first step in education, but it is merely a first step. FIRST has inspired enough students now to have 'critical mass.' FIRST no longer needs to restrict itself to inspiration, it can move on to educating.

I am suggesting that they do this by phasing out engineer participation in the actual building of the robot. The way for students to learn most is by being the ones to build the robot. It may be inspiring to watch over an engineer's shoulder as he/she builds a robot, but true learning comes from ownership. I hear many teams say "sure we had engineers involved in our build, but the kids understand every inch of the robot." While that may be true, it is not the same "understanding" as someone who had ownership of the build process from start to finish.

An example: before a match, a team who claimed full student understanding was in front of us, and i was peering at their drive train. I asked one of the students (the driver of the robot) what the gear ratio of their one step chain drive was. He didn't know, so I asked the human player, she didn't know and neither did the operator. Their coach, an engineer, was the one who knew. These students did not quite have the top to bottom understanding I had been assured of, and typically the driver and operator are the students most involved in the robot. In contrast all of the ten or so students who were full-time involved in our build process know our gear ratio, because they were directly involved in the design and build of the drive train.

Although it isn't important that everyone on the team know the gear ratios to four decimal places, such knowledge is indicative of the learning that has taken place. What make FIRST fun for me is the pride I get from coming up with a new way to do something, the satisfaction of seeing calculations work out into reality, and finally seeing the robot that I built get out their on the field and do its thing.

So I believe it is time for FIRST to elevate its mission beyond inspiration to education. The necessary step is to remove the engineers from the build process, not from the competition entirely because as is stated in FIRST's FAQ "meaningful involvement of adults in kid's lives is proven as an essential component for developing young people's potential." I propose restricting engineer involvement in the design process during the six week build period, that is not to say that the engineers should not be present, but they should be taking a backseat. It should be the engineers along for the ride instead of the kids. I am very much in favor of pre-build workshops on mechanical design, work sessions on a build train with as much engineer involvement as is desired by the students. However, during the build period it should be a time for the students to have control.

Now to finish off my rant several disclaimers:
1) This is not necessarily the opinion of Team 8, merely my own personal opinion.
2) This is an idea I intend to develop write about more fully at a time other than 11 PM and eventually propose to FIRST. I am posting it here so that y'all can throw your responses at it and we'll see what sticks. So have at it, and thanks.