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Hey everyone! So on my last post, 1 Year, 7 Months. My Longest Relationship, I told you all that this post was going to be Going to Worlds Meant the World to Me. However, I’m in the middle of finals week so I haven’t had time to finish writing that post. This post is about FIRST Robotics (specifically FIRST Robotics Competition and what it is from my point of view). I actually wrote this post for an English assignment recently so I hope you enjoy! The inventor of the Segway, Dean Kamen, and an emeritus professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Woodie Flowers, co-founded FIRST Robotics with the goal in mind that they wanted elementary students all the way up to high school students be encouraged to get a head start in learning about science and technology in a fun and immersive way and as Kamen said, “FIRST is more than robots. The robots are a vehicle for students to learn important life skills. The kids often come in not knowing what to expect – of the program nor of themselves. They leave, even after the first season, with a vision with confidence, and with a sense that they can create their own future” (FIRST inspires, 2017). FIRST Robotics stands For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.There are four levels in FIRST. There is Lego League Jr., Lego League, Tech Challenge, and Robotics Competition. The Lego League Jr. is for ages 6-10; Lego League is for ages 9-14; Tech Challenge is for grades 7-12; and Robotics Competition is for high school students (FIRST inspires, 2017). Robotics as defined by Merriam Webster Dictionary (2017), is “technology dealing with the design, construction, and operation of robots in automation.” Robotics is a growing field in today’s world and is continuing to substantially growing throughout the years. The examples of today’s modern robotic devices are machine they use in factories, cars that can drive themselves, and actual robots that are able to walk and talk. “Several critical ingredients often lacking in their academic classes. First, an element of fun, choice, and camaraderie leads them to value a difficult effort. They expect to succeed – partly because their work starts where they feel more confident, partly because getting it wrong is part of the process of doing it well. They can stretch at their own pace, so they produce work that gets better all the time” (Cushman p 80). FIRST provides an amazing opportunity to learn skills that you would not normally learn in a classroom setting. At the beginning of the year there is a video reveal for what the goal of the game is going to be. Students and mentors come together after school and after work to build a robot that meets the requirements of the FIRST rules and guidelines, once the robot is built and finished they go to a district event where they compete against and with other teams to get as many ranking points as possible. There are many studies that recognize the importance and value in mentoring. There are many positive outcomes that comes from mentoring such as student development, psychological health, professional development, and productivity (Sugimoto p 2). Mentoring in FIRST is very important because without the mentors there would not be anyone to lead the students in the right direction, teach them how to work the machines, teach them how to program, or teach them how to go out and look for sponsors. There are many studies that recognize the importance and value in mentoring. There are many positive outcomes that comes from mentoring such as student development, psychological health, professional development, and productivity (Sugimoto p 2). Mentoring in FIRST is very important because without the mentors there would not be anyone to lead the students in the right direction, teach them how to work the machines, teach them how to program, or teach them how to go out and look for sponsors. FIRST encourages its teams to exchange ideas through competition while complying with coopertition. Coopertition is a unique word that was created by FIRST Robotics which means to cooperate with other teams even while in competition with those teams. Coopertition and gracious professionalism are the two most important words in the FIRST Robotics world. First robotics competitions are not like any other type of competition. It is not all about who can get the highest score or ranking points, it is also about cooperation with other teams and finding out what their robot is good and not good at doing. Then the team tells them what their robot is good at and what our robot is not so good at. The reason teams go around and do this is because if the team qualifies for the final eight teams, they want to know which teams would qualify being a great teammate to be with and also know what each team is able to do ahead of time to strategize for their matches. There are competitions all over the world; FIRST teams work their way up the ladder in their state or in their region. District Competitions are normally at high schools located in the middle of where all the robotics teams are or if a team hosts it at their high school. State Competitions are normally held at a high school in or near the capital of the state. There are 2 World Competitions located at St. Louis, Missouri and in Houston, Texas. FIRST Robotics is a national organization, there are teams in countries from all over the world.
An FRC team is comprised of at least 10 students and two mentors. The cost of a FIRST Robotics team is between five thousand dollars and six thousand dollars excluding the costs of food for competitions, traveling to competitions, team shirts so other people know what team a student is from, and many other optional items. To raise money for the team to register for each year they have to either go out and fundraise themselves or go to businesses or their city officials if they will help them fundraise their team by donating money or sponsoring their team so that they have a set amount of money coming from them that they can rely on. The major part of a FIRST team is teamwork; without teamwork nothing would get done, no one would get a long, and there would not really be a team. Teams have many ways to build teamwork between each other. One of the ways is to play a team building game like kickball or an activity that requires multiple people to accomplish. Having a team full of diverse knowledge makes it so that there would be so many different ideas which could lead to new inventions and newer, and quicker solutions to mechanical issues. Each FRC team can split itself up into several sub teams such as media, finance, mechanical, animation, and programming. Having these different sub teams allows for there to be a rider range of audience because not everyone is interested in building a robot, some are interested in programming it or turning it into a cute little animation. The different subteams of a robotics team are media, animation, CAD, mechanical, programming and woodworking. The media team is in charge of taking pictures and videos of all the team be it working on the robot or working on programming. The animation team is in charge of making a short animated video that has to meet the requirements of the challenge they are given. The CAD team stands for computer animated design, the CAD team is in charge of making the robot design on computer so that the mechanical team can build the robot to the exact dimensions it needs to be.
FIRST Robotics is an amazing opportunity that teaches and enhances your life skills. You are able to learn how to build things, create a business plan, and learn to speak in public. I highly suggest for any student to look into any FIRST teams that are near them even if just to see all of the awesome things they do! Sources:
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AuthorHey there, my name is Ashley Martin! From several different class projects, this website has turned into a wonderful e-portfolio for myself and also a way to express my opinions on different topics, so check it all out and leave some comments! Categories
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