Press Release -- FIRST in ALL NH Schools

[Nate Laverdure]

I can't believe that no one has commented on this great achievement out of New Hampshire from last week...

From the FIRST Press Room:
Press Release (Oct 6, 2008) -- Gov. Lynch, Dean Kamen Set Goal of Bringing FIRST Robotics Competition To All NH Schools (pdf; 92KB)

For Immediate Release: Monday, October 6, 2008

Contact: Colin Manning
(603) 271-2121
(603) 361-4459 (cell)

Gov. Lynch, Dean Kamen Set Goal of Bringing FIRST Robotics Competition To All NH Schools

MANCHESTER – In an effort to boost science and technology learning, Gov. John Lynch today set a goal to bring the FIRST Robotics Competition to all New Hampshire high schools by September 2010.

Joined by FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) founder Dean Kamen, business leaders and education officials, Gov. Lynch encouraged greater participation from the business and higher education communities in order to reach the goal of 100 percent participation in all New Hampshire high schools.

“We must continue to provide 21st century opportunities to prepare our young people for 21st century jobs and 21st century lives,” Gov. Lynch said.

“The young people who participate in the FIRST Robotics Competition learn to dream about making a better world, and dare to invent to make that dream come true. There has never been a more important time to develop the math, science, engineering, and technology skills in our young people,” Gov. Lynch said. “The challenges of the 21st century demand these skills and our young people must be ready to meet those challenges.”

Right now, 28 of the state’s 87 public high schools have teams that participate in the FIRST Robotics Competition.

“All of us at FIRST are truly excited about the opportunity to get every high-school student in our home state of New Hampshire involved in challenging robotics competitions where science, technology, engineering and math skills are core to the program,” said Kamen. “We believe that FIRST’s goal of achieving 100 percent highschool participation is economically crucial for the state. The Governor setting this goal is a significant step toward giving New Hampshire’s young people the access, support and tools needed to develop these skills and abilities. New Hampshire could not make a more significant long-term, high-value investment in its young people than by preparing them for the challenges they will face in an ever-changing world economy.”

Gov. Lynch and the state Department of Education are encouraging local school districts to begin awarding course credit to high-school students who participate in FIRST.

Gov. Lynch and Kamen challenged the state’s business and higher education communities to increase sponsorship and volunteer efforts in order to reach the 100 percent participation threshold.

“This is the only competition where every participant on every team can turn pro,” said Walt Havenstein, CEO of BAE Systems Inc., the sponsor of the Granite State FIRST Robotics Competition Regional. “It is critical that our corporate leaders engage in creating world-class teams of future engineers and scientists to ensure the ongoing leadership of the United States and its allies in an increasingly competitive global environment. BAE Systems embraces this challenge by Governor Lynch and the State of New Hampshire.”

“We understand that our future depends on young people developing skills in math, science, and engineering to lead our state and help keep our economy strong. It will be inventors, engineers and scientists that lead the way in innovation,” Gov. Lynch said. “That is why I believe it is important we invest in our young people and work to ensure every high school student in the state has the opportunity to participate in this wonderful competition.”

[R.C.]

This is fabulous, I wish every state had the same approach and congrats to Dean Kamen.

[Kyle]

One state down, the rest of the world left...

[=Martin=Taylor=]

Originally Posted by Kyle

One state down, the rest of the world left...

More like 3 if you count Washington and Hawaii.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Hachiban VIII

More like 3 if you count Washington and Hawaii.

We don't yet have anything approaching having one FIRST program in each of our schools, to be fair, though our state legislature has taken the first step in that direction by making funding available for FIRST programs.

[skiswitch6]

I'm actually attending a New Hampshire public school and I'm rather excited about certian aspects of the plan.

The part that most interests me is the fact that I may be recieving credit for participating in FIRST. I think thats an excellent way to boost attendence. The only problems I see is that a lot of New Hampshire public schools are extreamly small. If you don't live in southern New Hampshire theres not much sponsership oppurtunity or resources available to help in the design process as far as I can tell

Hopefully the large New England companies such as BAE will be able to step in and help but I don't see a lot of these schools north of Concord getting a lot of support. I truly hope they do.. but I guess only time will tell. Our Team 151 has allready housed a rookie team last year in our machine shop and we are ready to offer any other help we can provide.

This is deffinitly good news for FIRST... but only time will tell how successfull we are.

[Daniel_LaFleur]

First off, I'd like to thank the Governor. He's setting a goal and attempting to lead people towards that goal. It is to be commended.

That said, however, his statements have to be taken with a grain of salt ... after all, It's election season.

I'd also like to point out that there is no mention of money from the state, instead he's asking private companies and local education systems (both already cash strapped in this economy) to foot this initiative, and man it as well.

I'm not sold on every school needing a team, and I actually believe that that may be counterproductive by diluting the talent pool of the mentors/volunteers. I do, however, believe that all students should have the oppertunity to join a FIRST program. Maybe by creating some district teams or such, rather than having teams be part of specific schools.

[Jessica Boucher]

Some things to note...

Yes, Lynch is up for re-election. But he also has a redicoulsly high approval rating, and I have barely heard/seen an ad for his campaign...because I think he feels he does not need to spend the money. Lynch has always been a huge FIRST supporter, as he frequently visits NH FIRST events and speaks at Kickoff before the NASA feed kicks on. Is it well-timed? Sure. Is it out of character? Not really.

Also of note - the BAE GSRegional in the Verizon Wireless Arena currently is maxed out at 39 teams (which could stretch to somewhere in the low 40s including the hidden rookie spots). It is a fixed hockey arena that can not expand, and to my knowledge is the largest public arena in NH. If the plan is to get 87 public schools on board, plus the 5 existing private school teams and the non-school affiliated groups, we will roughly need at least a second Verizon Wireless Arena to fit the NH teams only.

And finally, it comes back to that dreaded s word - sustainability. If there was any state in New England to do it, NH is it, as it is faring the best in this downturn - but can it be sustained, and is this the right place for our time to be spent? No matter the location, it comes down to those two questions.

[Jonathan Norris]

I have a mixed reaction to this announcement, on one hand I think its great to see this type of support for FIRST in New Hampshire. But on the other hand (as I've stated before in the Michigan thread) I agree with Cory and JVN that maybe FRC doesn't work for every high school. I do believe that FIRST can work in every school, be it Lego, FTC, or FRC.

[Eric Finn]

Alright, perhaps this could use some clarification.

Governor Lynch specifically said when asked by a reporter that the government would not fund FIRST programs, but rather that he would get corporations to donate money and mentors. That is why Walt Havenstein and a high-ranking (it was a while ago, so I can't remember exactly his position or name) member of the New Hampshire High Tech Council were both there to announce their support of this proposal.

I do remember seeing a video crew there, so I'll try to see if I can find a video of the announcement, hopefully with all the other people there. (Somebody else might have better luck than me on this - First page of Google and YouTube results turned up nothing for me)

To whoever said something about quantity over quality - Dean Kamen, Walt, and the guy from the NHHTC (but especially Dean Kamen) talked about how necessary mentors were. Dean Kamen talked for quite a while (surprise, surprise!) about how necessary good mentors were to FRC, even saying something along the lines of having a FRC team at a school without good mentors was essentially pointless.

Anyways, it does seem that more people than just John Lynch are committed to having a FIRST program in each school. Even if this is just part of a campaign, BAE and the NHHTC aren't running for office.

Besides, government support is not required for a school to have a FIRST team.

[Rich Kressly]

Originally Posted by Eric Finn

Alright, perhaps this could use some clarification.
To whoever said something about quantity over quality - Dean Kamen, Walt, and the guy from the NHHTC (but especially Dean Kamen) talked about how necessary mentors were. Dean Kamen talked for quite a while (surprise, surprise!) about how necessary good mentors were to FRC, even saying something along the lines of having a FRC team at a school without good mentors was essentially pointless.

The person who posed the quality v. quantity question is one of FRC's superior young mentors and a WFFA winner. JVN has contributed designs in collaboration with other FIRST mentors that have been part of the FRC kit of parts and his drive train calculator posted right here on CD-Media has been used successfully by countless teams. He was a student on a team in HS and has mentored both a college based and a sponsored based team.

As far as the pointless nature of an FRC team without "good" mentors I would challenge you to define "good". I believe this is akin to the push Dave Lavery made at kickoff about how having real engineers and/or actual engineering support on a team is critical and a part of the program. That is not the same thing as trying to define "good" mentors.

[Cory]

I think this is maybe not the greatest thing ever.

Why shoot for 100% FRC participation? It may take years to find the funds, and teams may drop out or not have the support they need to be sustainable if all they're getting is $6,000.

Seems like it'd be so much smarter to shoot for 100% FIRST involvement- be it FTC or FRC. The former is dirt cheap relative to FRC. It would be entirely plausible for every school to have one (or more) FTC teams. Furthermore, due to how much fewer resources you need to have a successful FTC program, it seems like the retention rate would be much better than that of FRC.

[Tristan Lall]

Originally Posted by Cory

Why shoot for 100% FRC participation? It may take years to find the funds, and teams may drop out or not have the support they need to be sustainable if all they're getting is $6,000.

I don't see a dollar amount attached to that press release. I have to expect that someone's explained to the Governor that team budgets must necessarily be higher than that, and that the fundraising goals must therefore be set much higher.

To me, the most notable feature of the statement was that "Gov. Lynch and Kamen challenged the state’s business and higher education communities to increase sponsorship and volunteer efforts in order to reach the 100 percent participation threshold." Not that there's anything particularly wrong with asking others for sponsorship, but it would be nice for the state government to clarify how much they intend to spend on this project.

There's a gubernatorial election coming up in New Hampshire, and it is probably a fairly sound political move to announce something like this, to build popular support. But remember the similar initiative in Michigan to fund FIRST programs at the state level? It was an item that the Governor championed, but which was ultimately trimmed from the budget. I wonder whether this one will face similar obstacles when it actually comes time to pass a state budget—that will be the real test of the state's commitment.

As for the merits of funding FRC throughout a state, I figure that doing so in a small state—and New Hampshire in particular—is a pretty good choice. FIRST gains clout by being able to say that it has 100% penetration in an entire state (despite the fact that there are fewer high schools there than in many large cities). And with FIRST based in New Hampshire, the politicians can be seen devoting their efforts to a worthy local cause that promises future benefits to the state's high-tech industries—doubly important when people are in a protectionist mood brought on by economic confusion.

Compared to other jurisdictions, New Hampshire is an excellent place to demonstrate the best-case scenario for a 100% penetration model. If it succeeds there, then others may follow—but if it fails in the state where FIRST has access to many unique advantages, it's going to be a very hard sell elsewhere. Either way, I don't see this as being a bad experiment.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Tristan Lall

I don't see a dollar amount attached to that press release. I have to expect that someone's explained to the Governor that team budgets must necessarily be higher than that, and that the fundraising goals must therefore be set much higher.

I meant more along the lines of even if money was taken care of (and obviously $6k won't do that. Each team would need more like at least $10k) that there's much more a team needs to be successful. Mainly mentors, which requires finding engineers, teachers, etc. Plus countless other things you need to make a team really sustainable.

Obviously this press release is far too brief to determine what the level of support will be. I'd hope they have taken all of the above into account.

[JVN]

Quantity over Quality?