If someone asked you to explain FIRST to a group of people that have never heard of it, how would you do it? To us, FIRST is more than the robot. It’s about challenging the Status Quo, and not only that, but raising the bar of what people think of STEM. It is also about pushing the limits of what is possible and helping not only ourselves, but mentoring those with less experience. It’s about inspiring the community by going out and presenting to the public eye. Our team is dedicated and growing. We’re trying to become the role models for generations to come. In this past year alone, we have nearly doubled the amount of females on the team. We’ve gone from having 18% of our team being female to 46%. But growing isn’t our only concern. To make sure we don’t repeat our past mistakes of not passing down knowledge from one generation to the next, we have started an Internal Mentorship Program. Where our incoming freshman and sophomores built our entire shooter mechanism for the Texas Robot Roundup over the summer under the guidance of our junior and senior members of the team. We also began to mentor other competing teams within our school that are relevant to STEM, such as our rookie Odyssey of the Mind team. Growing internally isn’t enough. The Devastators expanded outside of our team and laid the foundations of our impact in the community. We started with our school and 15% of HSA-Waco high school students are in FRC. We also were one of the founding presenters at our schools first ever STEM festival. However, this still isn’t enough. We’ve made a vigorous effort to present to the community and promote STEM & FIRST. Some of the events we’ve showcased our robot include the Waco Arts and Science Festival, Waco Air Show, Harmony Sci... ... middle of paper ... ...the robot and he realized he enjoyed it so now he will studying at UT Austin for Mechanical engineering. Then Cristian Lara, another member of our team is now employed in making iPhone themes. He was able to gain experience in this because he learned to code from FRC. Now Christian will be studying for Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin. Finally Rhiannon Hayes was able to decide on a career path because of her strong involvement on the business plan. In conclusion the Devastators are a group of individuals who work insanely hard at improving themselves and our community. As our Head captain, Kenz Love would say “ We might not have a football but robotics is varsity football. The only difference is that in robotics everyone has chance to go pro.” In conclusion, FIRST is more than the robot, its about experience that students encounter from this.
As a former Robotics Club Team Captain and Historian of Patriot High School’s Student Council, I understand the importance of combining leadership and collaboration. While...
Tenth grade Jayden Fowler is a quiet, contemplative dedicated young man who knows how to ‘make it loud’ for STEM. In the two year’s Jayden has been involved in FIRST FRC he has dedicated many hours during team meetings and during his personal time furthering his and other’s understanding of STEM and FIRST principles.
Mr. Grover has spent the last two decades with PCS working in the field of education designing, developing, and creating learning programs and services intended to facilitate student-centered, experiential learning. PCS programs are now deployed in over 7,000 sites in all 50 United States and 13 countries, bringing hands-on, engaging activities to students in public and private schools, science centers, and after-school programs. Mr. Grover has extensive experience in STEM education and has worked closely with a variety of organizations to design, implement, and study successful, hands-on STEM programs including the United States Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, the YMCA, the US
1 Koff, Stephen. “NASA’s new chief will ask 'why' a lot”. The Plain Dealer. January 10, 2002. National Pg. A2. Lexis-Nexis Universe. Online. Nexis. April 28, 2002. program, and would likely bring back a large public interest in the cosmos not seen since the heyday of space in the 1950s and 60s. However, NASA exists neither to entertain the American people nor to promote interest in outer space. According to Sean O’Keefe, NASA’s newly-minted Chief Administrator, it exists to “advance the development of science and technology”2.
Researching and discovering new information can expand our understanding of various topics. The Founders Day Project allowed me to acquire a great deal of knowledge on history pertaining to Townsend Harris, the person, and the Townsend Harris High School. It also helped me to discover several things about myself and about teamwork.
As the Tiger rolled around, there arose a question of whether or not to keep the team together or break it up and give the two seniors a chance to compete in other individual events at regionals. I actually didn't know about this possibility until about five minutes before the race began on Saturday. We were all huddled together preparing for the start. Jeremy came up to Rodney and me and told us that if we didn't do well the team might be dropped. Kicking our motivational drive into high, the four of us focused on only one thing: running the time we all knew we could. Getting into the blocks I felt more ready than ever. At the sound of the gun, I shot out of the blocks. I sprinted around the track, concentrating on making a great hand-off.
“Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.”-Carl Sagan. The imagination of the future revolves around the skills taught in a science class. The 21st century is predicted to produce aircraft such as jetpacks and man-flying bikes and many more extravagant inventions. Based on the science scores, it seems Americans have to wait another century before eye-popping inventions are introduced or until other countries reach the mark. America is ranked fifteenth in science and twenty-fifth in mathematics. Countless amounts of money have been placed on education reforms, but where should the money go to improve such a trench? Many corporations and leaders have a solution for the issue. America is in a difficult position regarding science education, but there has been a lot of participation from leaders who can solve the issue and keep America ahead in technology, as it was in the previous centuries.
I have been on my high school's robotics team, team Xbot, for all four years of high school. In these incredible four years I have learned many skills and gained invaluable experience that go beyond building robots. I have learned about teamwork, public speaking, and grace in defeat. My team has had varying amounts of success every year. In my first year we were a rookie team and had successfully qualified for the state competition where we experienced a crushing defeat. The next year, much to my surprise, I was promoted to team captain. At the time I did not fully understand the weight of my role until the end of the season during my junior year. Last year we successfully advanced to the regional competition held in Oakland, California. We were very
To strengthen my knowledge of science and engineering, I attend many specialized science and technology classes and clubs , which has allowed me to pursue an education in the fields of learning that I enjoy most. In parallel to each other my participation in engineering related extracurricular activities and taking STEM related classes has forged my skills in mechanical engineering.The robotics club and TSA have provided me with a platform to grow my knowledge in STEM. My responsibilities as a leader in both these clubs have taught me problem solving, working with others, and communication. Whether it's designing and building a robot or organizing the part of a martian journy problem solving skills are crucial because you run into countless problems when solving issues and fixing bugs. Communication is similarly important, it is essential to the function of a team and is required to complete day to day tasks. Leading my team when working on the robot taught me skills required to organize a group in order to complete a task. Similarly TSA has taught me about leadership and engineuity. The ability to work with others is important because being on a team means disagreement, and solving those problems with alacrity is important to keep a group working. My experience in STEM and CTE classes builds up my knowledge in engineering
My third and final reason adds to my first saying space exploration inspires competition and innovation, stated in Leaving Main Street. This adds on by students getting inspired will be able to
Half a school year had passed and before you knew it, I was the unofficial captain. I was always given a project to complete. I even designed all of our robots. Even though we lost the competition we all gained a short bit more knowledge, later to be used and applied for next year.
...ause the students are already driven. They already have some ideas in place or are actively looking for ideas. Taking driven students and putting them under one roof and telling them to work together to accomplish whatever they feel would make the world better only motivates them even more. In the future Co.Space’s goal is to expand out of Penn State to open up houses across the country and the world and have the houses collaborate together further motivating people. The open atmosphere and the way people just start planning and collaborating together to motivate everyone else in an organic way is outstanding and there are only a few areas that need only minor adjusting. But overall, Co.Space is an amazing, innovating, inspiring home where students who are already motivated can come together and increase their motivation and make a change in the world together.
The largest factor in the increase in demand for STEM workers is that the world is quickly becoming more information-based and technological. According to present and former employees of Counseling and Career Development Rich Feller and Angela Taurig, the demand is
In the Mentoring for Success program I was able to monitor the effect of mentoring on a student’s academic progress and ability to transition to college by administering regular assessments. But perhaps the best method in determining a good mentor-mentee match was observing how they interacted with one another in program meetings and outings. It was pleasing to see mentors and their mentees work as a team to excel on the health quiz and applaud each other for hitting their target number of steps in the pedometer
It is clear from the beginning of the article that this is not a simple issue. However, the author does a proficient job at explaining the issue and providing different solutions that can solve the problem. Reading this article has expanded my knowledge on the benefits of mentoring programs and how to implement them not only to students but in my practice too in the future.