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“To transform our culture by creating a world where science and technology are celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and technology leaders.”
Dean Kamen, Founder
This past week I got to experience something pretty inspiring. It’s called FIRST and it’s a series of programs designed for students interested in putting things together, taking things apart and making things better.
Founded by Dean Kamen {inventor of the Segway and many other incredible life supporting products} Students ages 5 - 18 can join leagues/teams around the world to design and engineer solutions based on a theme provided by FIRST.
Each age group has a mission. For the young engineers, a Lego league, for the technical students a technical league and for the high school students interested in larger scale solutions, a robotics league.
All of this in an attempt to maintain youth engagement in STEM.
And once they’ve developed their solution to a problem, they compete against other local teams to determine which robot is the most creative, most innovative, most sustainable etc.until a regional winner is determined. The regional winners then move on to the world competitions. And believe me when I tell you that these solutions the students develop are some of the most brilliant ideas I’ve ever seen a 12 year old develop.
The event I participated in this past week brings the best teams from all over the world to St. Louis at the Edward Jones Dome to compete head to head in challenges set up by FIRST. It’s like the Olympics for STEM teenagers. And it truly is an international event. Students from China to New Zealand to Israel and Russia were all competitors at this weeks events.
As an example of the skills developed from these students involvement with FIRST, I met a team of 14 year-old kids who are applying for a patent on a solution they’ve created that helps retailers avoid selling expired goods to consumers.
I won’t go into too much detail, but the solution is incredibly smart and these kids are only 14! Imagine how bright their futures will be once they are exposed to larger industry problems. And that is exactly what FIRST hopes to prepare them for.
There are so many incredible companies, celebrities and local mentors who champion this organization to help spread the word of it’s value. From the company that I work for to NASA, Lego, Rockwell Collins, Coca Cola, and celebrities such as Morgan Freeman and Will I Am, the list goes on and on. And yet there are still so many people who do not know about the exciting role this organization plays in the engagement of STEM and our nations youth.
It was my first exposure to FIRST and it won’t be the last. These students are impressive. Their curiosity and tenacity for the sport is not only inspiring but motivating.
I hope you’ll look into the organization further and consider being a mentor to a team in your area. These students and their mentors are breaking the mold and making things better, one idea at a time.
And you don’t have to be an engineer to mentor a team, the students need mentors who can help set up business plans, help develop presentations and their communication skills and on and on. Typically there are a series of mentors who are able to help the team develop as many of these skills as possible. Please think about it. I know I am going to get involved here in Connecticut.
Image of FIRST championship competition via (The Life of Pat a FIRST team member)
Some pretty panoramic shots I took this weekend at St. Louis.
First one is of our view from the Archimedes stands, second is the view of the city from the top of the St. Louis arch, third is the Einstein field from the top stands of the dome, and the last is the view of the Mississippi river from the arch.
Yep - have to end up linking them - I’m gonna work on it today, but I’ve gotta get thru some finals first. -LK
For the FIRST-ers who are heading to Champs soon! I really wanted a version of this just with the FRC fields (and Kamen). If we wanted to include the FTC fields we’d need one for Rosalind Franklin (The original artist already made one for Edison)
Sources are the same: Kapil Bhagat & safetygogglesatnight
UH I KIND OF LOVE THIS. Amazing.
Signal boost the heck out of this to your fellow FIRSTers.
We’ll be doing a tumblr meetup at 12:30 on Thursday of Championship - on the 2nd level of the convention center (Last year, it was by the Chairman’s presentation rooms, and that seemed to work out.)
Basically, from where the pits let out, go up the big staircase that’s right there, and you’ve arrived! If someone wants to make a little sign or something that’s cool, but TBH I can’t drag it around all day because I’m all over the place.
I am hoping to be on my Segway if I can get it down there, so I should be a pretty easy target.
(Speaking of, any NJ/PA area teams taking a bus down that want to do me a huuuuuuuge favor? Love you forever. Message me on libbykamen.tumblr.com)
-Libby
Thursday in the lunch-hour seems to work best for most - maybe we want to do 12:30 or even closer to 1 so that people who are busy have a chance to grab lunch. Let me know what you think? I’ll have a definitive post on this once we get some responses. -LK
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