Dear Parents and Students,
This year Manlius Pebble Hill is going to offer a course in robotics whose origin is in the U.S. First Robotics competition. “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, or FIRST, is organized to inspire curiosity and create interest in science and mathematics among today's high school students. The competition has been called a unique varsity sport of the mind designed to help discover the interesting and rewarding life of engineers and researchers." The robotics competition and program, is an interdisciplinary program that not only teaches students the necessary skills of working cooperatively in a group, but also provides a place for many different types of students to contribute. One student participant, who was not even interested in engineering, started participating in the competitions, found a place for her interests and still participates with the program. The different roles that students can take on in the project range from web designer, computer animator, to fundraiser, to the team project of actually building the robot. So this is truly a team activity that requires students with many different types of interests. Our teams would work intensively for a six week period before the competition to finish our robot. The regional competitions are usually two to three day events that bring all of these teams together to showcase their hard work. There are already well over 100 schools participating in this competition just in the New York area.
The course at MPH would be a year long course that would focus on preparing students for the intensive building time and the competition in the spring. We would start with a calendar of events, time line and creation of the website which is one of the major projects outlined by the organization for the competition. The website will keep track of student progress and provide an outlet for student creativity surrounding their future creation. One of the main artistic endeavors for the students is the creation of animation that they must put on the website. The funds needed to run the project and enter the competition are substantial, so the students will need to start fundraising as soon as possible. The other projects that the students would complete include a school demonstration, community service project and building the robot.
A list of scholarships available for students interested in pursuing occupations in technology, engineering & science is located at http://usfirst.org/scholarshipsearch.aspx. Over 100 schools offering scholarships are shown on the website. Many of the scholarships provide $10,000 - $20,000 of aid, but some schools offer amounts exceeding those amounts to provide enough money for the students to attend the school. The list of students who have won scholarships that have also participated in the US First Robotics Competition is also located at the above website and the list is quite extensive. Some students have even earned scholarships to the prestigious Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Not only will we need students to be involved in this team, but parental involvement is a must in order to ensure a successful season. When you reply, please think about which parental role you might be able to fill. The following mentor roles are required in order to facilitate student leadership and knowledge:
Send questions and emails of interest to colive@mph.net or chempel@mph.net. We need to get students on board with taking the course as soon as possible this summer in order to find financial support and get organized. We need at least 12 students to have a sufficiently large team. In order to ensure a quick start, responses by the end of the first week in July would be extremely helpful. We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Cahmlo Olive
Chris Hempel