Monday, August 18, 2014

F.I.R.S.T. Robotics

    If you have never heard of F.I.R.S.T. robotics let me give you a quick overview. This is a program that deals with high school aged teens. It is a program that is out to promote S.T.E.M. (Science, Teaching, Engineering and Medical) fields of study. The program give the students a box of parts and a game to play. They have strict rules that they have to build and play and the students have to design, build, wire and program the robot to play this game.

    The first time I ever went to one of the meetings for the design and programing of the robot, I was amazed at just what was expected of these students to have a fully functional robot that could play this game. I was expecting that they would have modules that snap together and code that was prepackaged that would allow for them to learn the process but not really have to understand what was going on but that was not the case. The teams sit down on a computer and design with CAD software. They draw out schematics and they write all of their own code. There is some code provided but there is also a lot that they have to provide on their own. It is exciting to see these young adults get so excited about learning and achieving.

    So you may ask what this has to do with William since he is six. I have been taking him with me to the builds for a few years now. He loves to be part of the whole thing, even if he doesn't get to do a lot of it. He really gets to feel like he is part of the team when they let him control the robot. I also use to take Jacob William's big brother. He loved to go and be part of the builds too. I love knowing that these programs get children excited about learning and college and what they can do with their imagination. I like that William is already so excited about what he sees going on. I really hope that it helps motivate him to do something great with his life.

Teaching kids to achieve,

His Loving Dad 

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