Today at the White House, President Obama is launching an “Educate to Innovate” campaign to improve the participation and performance of America’s students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
The event will kick off at 11:30 a.m. with a speech from the President. There will be a webcast available below. OSTP Director John P. Holdren and Education Secretary Arne Duncan will also be hosting a Facebook chat at 1 p.m. to discuss the new initiative.
Obama just announced that a high school team is there and will demonstrate their robot that shoots moonrocks! I didn’t catch the name of the team though.
EDITED: I have my answer – their Webcast is messed up. I was online at 8:20 PST and the “White House Live” frame never changed for more than an hour. By going to a different site and then drilling in two levels I finally found the elusive “11:30 EST.” Did Obama say anything interesting?
Not sure what you’re talking about Rick, the page comes up for me.
116 has undertaken these kinds of initiatives before … everything from Capitol Hill visits to mentoring new rookie teams, facilitating FRC kickoff events, events on the National Mall, etc etc. I’m glad a team of their caliber could represent FIRST in D.C.
The webcast was indeed miserable, but the address was shown live on CNN. Unfortunately, I missed the portion where the FIRST team was introduced. The President made some powerful statements regarding the importance of STEM for the country’s future. He specifically mentioned FIRST robotics as a program inspiring students in science, math an technology. The President spoke of major STEM program (5 yr, $100M), Connect a Million Minds, led by Time Warner Cable, partnering with FIRST and the Coalition for Science After School (CSAS). He also announced a National Lab Day and national science fair, with winners of various competitions invited to the White House.
CNN nearly cut away before the brief robotics demonstration at the end of the event, even after the media had been admonished by the President for it’s lack of interest in the subject of education! Fortunately, the robotics demonstration did manage about 15 seconds of air time before CNN returned to it’s regular news coverage. :rolleyes:
P.S. I believe the robot was from Team 623 (Oakton HS), two of the team members were introduced by the President. Awesome job!!
Provide youth (ages 11-18) access to hands-on STEM learning opportunities in after-school settings
Be located within TWC’s footprint
The area of Time Warner Cable’s footprint encompasses California, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas & Wisconsin. If I were a team in one of those states, I would start applying - http://www.connectamillionminds.com/request_support.php#
The cool thing is that you can request In-Kind support as well. Teams could start producing PSA’s and have them air for no cost.
That would be Team #623, though I expect 116 was still there in some capacity since they hail from Herndon H.S.:
And then we’ve got some students from – some wonderful students from some wonderful schools: Oakton High School in Vienna, Virginia; Longfellow Middle School in Fairfax, Virginia; the Washington Mathematics Science Technology Public Charter High School here in D.C., and the Herndon High School in Herndon, Virginia. Welcome, everybody. (Applause.)
another interesting blurb from the transcript:
And today, I’m announcing that we’re going to have an annual science fair at the White House with the winners of national competitions in science and technology. If you win the NCAA championship, you come to the White House. Well, if you’re a young person and you’ve produced the best experiment or design, the best hardware or software, you ought to be recognized for that achievement, too. Scientists and engineers ought to stand side by side with athletes and entertainers as role models, and here at the White House we’re going to lead by example. We’re going to show young people how cool science can be.
Afterwards the President greeted the students at the event, including Epsilon Delta (Team 116). The President was very specifc - he wanted to have a group photo with all the students - “and no adults allowed!” http://www.team116.org/Images/2009/ObamaGreetsSmall.jpg
The team sat next to Jamie Hyneman and Adams Savage from The Mythbusters during the event. Possible highlight of the day - getting Adam to laugh right in the middle of his phone call by asking if he wanted to go to lunch with us at White Castle. http://www.team116.org/Images/2009/Mythbusters02Small.jpg
The entire event was extremely impressive, and both Team 116 and Team 623 were very honored to be asked to represent the FIRST community during this announcement. The President’s clarity on the absolute need for a focused effort to increase the importance of education, and STEM topics in particular, was empassioned and desperately needed. We all are looking forward to the effects that this initiative will have. Based on what we have learned already, some of these effects (such as the new programming through the Time-Warner stations) will start to show up almost immediately.
And the implicit promise to have the winners of future FIRST competitions come to the White House was not missed on any of us!
