Oprah Winfrey Show

[Jon Jack]

Recently (Feb. 15) Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates and Milinda Gates visited our school and stoped by our engineering lab to see Team 1538 and the progress of our robot. From what I know that visit should be on the Oprah Winfrey show sometime this month. I have no specific dates, but if you happen to see it, please let me know.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by jjack

Recently (Feb. 15) Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates and Milinda Gates visited our school and stoped by our engineering lab to see Team 1538 and the progress of our robot. From what I know that visit should be on the Oprah Winfrey show sometime this month. I have no specific dates, but if you happen to see it, please let me know.

Heh. Can you PM me with a little bit more information about their visit to your school?

See -- we build our robots on the Microsoft campus, have undying support from some of their employees and yet, I'd bet on my life that neither Bill or Melinda Gates know we exist.

[Jon Jack]

April 12th is the air date for the show. We're not garunteed to be on the show, but still watch it, for a chance to see Team 1538 (The Holy Cows) on Oprah.

[Jon Jack]

Today is the day the show is set to air. There is a preview on the Oprah website for today's show and it looks as though we will for sure be on there!

[Beth Sweet]

I watched it yesterday but I missed the section on your robot team!

[Jon Jack]

Originally Posted by Beth Sweet

I watched it yesterday but I missed the section on your robot team!

Actually yesterday was the first part of a two part series. We are going to be shown in the second part. Today is the day that the second part will air. So tune in today!

Here is a link to the trailer:
http://www2.oprah.com/tows/pastshows...20060412.jhtml

[Greg Perkins]

I'm sure Melinda didn't marry Bill for his good looks

[K.Shaw]

wow if i hadn't of checked CD 5 min ago i would have def. missed the clip. But i saw it good job guys!

[Beth Sweet]

Originally Posted by K.Shaw

wow if i hadn't of checked CD 5 min ago i would have def. missed the clip. But i saw it good job guys!

Hey, no fair, we don't get Oprah until 5 here!

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Greg Perkins

I'm sure Melinda didn't marry Bill for his good looks

I'll withhold a Bill Gates joke--I'm biased.

I just saw the piece on Oprah--considering the topic of the program (read: it wasn't aimed at FIRST), it was pretty awesome.

(Hmm...I wonder if FIRST is now one of Oprah's Favorite Things. )

[Luckyfish05]

Originally Posted by Billfred

I'll withhold a Bill Gates joke--I'm biased.

(Hmm...I wonder if FIRST is now one of Oprah's Favorite Things. )

I think someone should send oprah an email/letter(or however you go about it) to see if we could get her to do a show on FIRST. I've watched both shows and she's talked a lot about how science and math are so far behind..... hmmm just a thought.

[KenWittlief]

I thought that was pretty mis-leading to show students at this wonderful 'high tech high' school, building a robot

with no mention that, hey wait a minute, that is a FIRST robotics team design, and there are over 1000 HS that are doing the same thing

except they work on their robot after class, not when ever they feel like it!

Oprah got sold a bill of goods, again!

[Andrew Blair]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

Oprah got sold a bill of goods, again!

I think that should read: Oprah bought a bill of goods. Remember: Oprah gets what Oprah wants, and Oprah thinks 95% of high schools in America are failing...

(She might have the right idea, but it's not necessarily as dramatic as she would like it to be...)

But looks great guys! It's good that you got a TON of exposure from this!

[Jon Jack]

Well... I have just seen the episode (I live on the left coast, so Oprah airs at 7:00 pm EST here). I have a couple things I'd like to say:

The first is that we talked a lot more about what FIRST is and what we do. The entire interview lasted about 20-30 minutes, but was, as expected, cut down to a much smaller 'tv friendly' version.

With regards to what Ken said we explained that we participate in the FIRST Robotics Competition and that we are by no means the only high school in the world, let alone the United States doing this. Bill understood what FIRST was and what we were talking about. He said that he had met with Dean Kamen and thought that FIRST was a great program. As for Oprah, she just kind of sat back and observed the rest of the class (at that time in the day it was a Engineering Design and Development class). She was silent for the most part until she saw a few of the girls on the team, that is when she stepped forward and started asking questions.

[Ed Sparks]

I saw the clip .....

I just happen to be 'vegging' on the sofa when all of a sudden I saw that CAD design with two very familiar CIM motors. Then I saw the poof ball and a machine that looked somewhat familiar. "Hey", I screeched to my wife, "That's a FIRST robot !".

Too bad the clip never even mentioned FIRST. I watched the credits but no FIRST there either.

Great job to your team though, looks like you guys have a great school and a great team.