Student Inventors Strut Stuff at FIRST Vex Challenge
FIRST Vex™ Challenge slideshow
"FIRST is thrilled for the opportunity to partner with Rhode Island's leadership to make Rhode Island the first state in the country where every high school has the opportunity to participate in a FIRST challenge." - Dean Kamen
Overview
Hands-on, Team-focused Learning that Works for Schools
The FIRST Vex™ Challenge (FVC) is a mid-level robotics competition for high-school students. It offers the traditional challenge of a FIRST competition but with a more accessible and affordable robotics kit.
In October 2006, the Business Innovation Factory and the Rhode Island Science and Technology Advisory Council partnered to offer Dean Kamen's FIRST Vex™ Challenge to each of Rhode Island's 67 public high schools, charter schools, and career and technical centers.
With support from the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation and a grant from Rhode Island's Creative Use of Technology in Education program, Rhode Island is the first state in the country to offer the program to all public high schools statewide.
Student teams participating in the FVC program will design and construct a working robot capable of completing a specific set of tasks. Teams work as a group with an adult mentor to build and test their robots. Students must track their progress, successes, and challenges throughout the process.
The program's simplicity is core to its success. The FVC requires no special tools and can be implemented by teachers as part of a school's science and math curriculum, and/or be an after school activity. Most importantly, kits can be reused each year.
In bringing the FIRST Vex™ Challenge to Rhode Island, program partners aim to create, measure, and sustain a statewide program that will:
- Inspire high-school students to explore science, technology, engineering, and mathematics;
- Create stronger linkages between Rhode Island's educational system, post-secondary institutions, and businesses;
- Offer unique workforce development opportunities to businesses;
- Strengthen Rhode Island's positioning as the place to test proof of concept for innovation and education, by putting FIRST into high schools statewide and measuring results, while simultaneously building a stronger workforce pipeline through the program.
History
Think big, start small, scale fast...
Founded in 1989, FIRST has a long history of engaging young people with math and science problem solving through robotics. The organization's first and most intensive program, the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), has grown from 59 teams in 1995 to over 1,300 teams in 2007. This coming year, over 30,000 high-school-age young people are expected to participate in 37 regional tournaments throughout the United States, Canada, Brazil, Great Britain, Mexico and Israel. FIRST's Lego League, which is directed towards middle-school-age students, has also seen impressive growth: the number of teams has climbed from 200 in 1998 to 7,501 in 2005. Over thirty countries now have Lego League programs.
Last year, FIRST piloted the FIRST Vex Challenge as a potential program. The pilot season brought together over 130 teams to compete in six regional tournaments. Fifty teams participated in the FVC tournament at the national FIRST championship in April 2006.
Participating teams are issued a Vex robotics kit that contains all of the materials required to build a working robot. Teams are challenged to construct a working robot capable of completing a specific set of tasks, such as gathering or placing balls in goals and maneuvering their robots into a designated position. The Vex Challenge requires no special tools and can be implemented by teachers as part of a school's science and math curriculum, and/or be an after school activity. Most importantly, kits can be reused each year, although teams may elect to upgrade kits with additional components.
When FIRST's leaders were looking to roll out the Vex Challenge in a larger way, Rhode Island's manageable size, close knit networks, and densely concentrated resources made it an ideal place for the organization to quickly and cost effectively roll out the new program to hundreds of students in scores of high schools. And BIF was ready to bring its public and private partners together to help FIRST implement and sustain its newest program.
"This opportunity proves that Rhode Island is uniquely positioned to use its size as a competitive advantage to innovate in education," says Saul Kaplan, BIF founder and Executive Director of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation. "Through collaboration, we can cost effectively roll out a plan to bring the FIRST Vex Challenge - and the unique learning opportunity it presents - to every high school in Rhode Island."
All innovations are only as good as the value that they add to the end user, and innovations in education are no exception. Non-profit organizations are increasingly taking steps to objectively measure the impact of their programs on individuals from a range of different social, economic, ethnic and geographic groups.
Implementation of the Vex Challenge in every Rhode Island high school will allow FIRST to analyze data from its pilot in real time as the project progresses. Furthermore, the inclusion of schools from urban, suburban and rural districts provides a cohort that is unprecedented in its geographic and socioeconomic diversity. And, the Vex Challenge pilot in Rhode Island will allow FIRST to measure the longitudinal impact of its program on indicators that are only measured at the state level.
FIRST will use their experience in Rhode Island as a model for the program's national expansion.
The program, run through BIF's student experience lab, is supported by Rhode Island Governor Donald L. Carcieri and a coalition of education and science and technology advocates, including the Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Governor's PK-16 Council, the Rhode Island Science and Technology Advisory Council, business leaders, and the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation.
High Points
Why a robotics program?
To be competitive in a global knowledge economy and increasingly “flat" world, America must have a strong educational pipeline that will train and excite a new generation of scientists, engineers and innovators.
We need to find some way to get students interested in quantitative problem solving and innovation. And we need to make it accessible to all of Rhode Island's students, regardless of where and how they live.
FIRST: an innovative approach that improves the student experience
BIF, together with Rhode Island's education and science and technology leadership, believes that FIRST Vex™ Challenge may be a way to equip students with the interest and problem solving skills in math and science that they need to serve as the next generation of American innovators.
Created by renowned entrepreneur and inventor Dean Kamen, FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a multinational non-profit organization, that aspires to transform culture, making science, math, engineering, and technology as cool for kids as sports are today. The FIRST Vex™ Challenge (FVC) is a mid-level robotics competition targeted toward high-school aged students. The Vex System allows students to design and construct robotic devices which can be autonomously programmed or radio controlled to perform various tasks that expand the boundaries of experimental intelligence. Student teams participating in the program will construct a working robot capable of completing a specific set of tasks and will have the opportunity to demonstrate their robot in a statewide competitive event. To participate, schools must commit a teacher and/or other adult mentor to the project to coordinate and support its student team. Winning teams may elect to participate in a regional or national competition.
According to Kamen, "The Vex program offers young people the opportunity to discover the excitement and rewards of science, technology, and engineering - an important step towards building a society that is encouraging of invention, innovation and engineering."
Integration: Putting all the Pieces Together
This program is a natural fit for Rhode Island's mission to better prepare its students to participate in a 21st century global economy. The Vex program is also a natural bridge for the many students who already participate in the FIRST Lego League program but for a variety of reasons are not able to participate in FIRST's FRC program, which unlike the Vex program, requires significant technical support and access to heavy machinery.
Ultimately, the three programs will create a seamless portfolio of exciting science, technology, engineering and math learning opportunities for our children.
Central to the project objectives is the integration of the Vex Challenge into the state's new standards for science, technology, mathematics, and engineering (STEM) education. The Vex Challenge emphasizes inquiry learning and teaching, which is consistent with the focus of state and national STEM initiatives. Additionally, students who participate in the Vex Challenge will have opportunities to gain proficiency in the applied learning skills that are required for high school graduation under the Rhode Island Diploma System.
Results
FIRST VEX Rhode Island Tournament
On March 31, 2007, 35 teams from across the state joined in a statewide competition where finished robots went head-to-head in a challenge that tested each robot's capabilities. The tournament, held at the New England Institute of Technology was a high energy event that brought the same energy and community enthusiasm to learning as traditionally found at school sporting events.
Evaluation: Using Rhode Island as a Model; Harvesting the Insights
BIF and STAC, along with the PK-16 Council are also partnering with FIRST to conduct a detailed evaluation of the project's implementation. FIRST will use their experience in Rhode Island to test strategies for the Vex program's national expansion, demonstrating Rhode Island's unique ability to serve as a test bed for developing new ideas. Rhode Island educators will have access to this data and will have the ability to create a deeper and longitudinal understand of how the FIRST programs influence science, technology, engineering and math performance.
More about FIRST and the Vex Challenge
FIRST designs accessible, innovative programs that motivate young people (ages 6-18) to pursue education and career opportunities in science, technology, engineering and math, while building self-confidence, knowledge and life skills. FIRST VEX is a mid-level robotics competition for high-school students. It offers the traditional challenge of a FIRST robotic competition but with a more accessible and affordable robotics kit that allows students to discover the excitement and rewards of science, technology, and engineering.
FIRST works closely with research and academic organizations to provide tangible evidence of it's impact on student education and career choices. An independent study conducted by Brandeis University surveyed FIRST participants and found that, compared to students who had not competed in FIRST, the FIRST students were:
- More than three times more likely to major specifically in engineering
- Significantly more likely to expect to achieve a post graduate degree
- More than twice as likely to expect to pursue a career in science and technology
- Four times as likely to expect to pursue a career specifically in engineering.
Learn More
Syndicate
Join our conversation. Get the latest posts from our weblog BIFSpeak:
Or, get the latest weblog posts in your email box: