BIF and FIRST Statewide Robotics Program
Student Inventors Strut Stuff at FIRST Vex Challenge
The sights and sounds were reminiscent of a sporting event: referees donning black and white apparel, bleachers filled with an electrified crowd and an announcer's booming voice. But this was no basketball game. This was the FIRST Vex Challenge tournament, a program where high school students built working robots and put their creations to the test in a head-to-head competition.
For spectators at the March 31 event, the excitement was palpable each time a new team made their way onto the "field" to test their robots capabilities.
"Everyone's been to a high school sporting event and seen how excited a community gets about a winning basket or a home run," says Saul Kaplan, founder of the Business Innovation Factory and executive director of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation. "Imagine the same scene, only this time the crowd is cheering on a student who has used her skills to excel in a robotics competition. To see this kind of excitement - usually reserved for sporting events - brought to learning is exactly why the Business Innovation Factory was excited to help Rhode Island become the first state in the country to offer the Vex program statewide."
The project began in October 2006, when BIF partnered with Rhode Island Governor Donald L. Carcieri, the Rhode Island Science and Technology Advisory Council, Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, leaders from the state's business and technology community, and the New England Institute of Technology to make Rhode Island the first state in the country to offer the Vex program to each its public high schools.
What makes Vex so special?
The Vex program's simplicity. Many programs ask student teams to build robots that require intense professional mentorship and access to sophisticated metal working equipment, something that few schools have the resources to manage. In contrast, the Vex Challenge uses a smaller, reusable robotics kit that students can, with help from an adult mentor, assemble in the classroom with more common tools.
Working as a team, students used the kit's raw materials to construct a working robot capable of performing a specific set of tasks. Along the way, teams chronicled their experience in an engineering notebook. Students then brought their creations to a statewide tournament where robots squared off in a ring to earn points. Winning teams have the option of participating in FIRST's national competition in Atlanta.
What attracted BIF to a robotics program?
"This program was a natural fit for BIF's student experience lab," says Allan Tear, who runs the BIF experience lab program. "Not only did we have the opportunity to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation among young people, we had the opportunity to use Rhode Island as a laboratory for testing Vex's strategy for the program's larger-scale roll out."
FIRST is using their experience in Rhode Island to test strategies for the Vex program's national expansion, offering up a strong proof point for Rhode Island's unique ability to serve as a test bed for developing new ideas. BIF, along with leaders from Rhode Island's educational community, also is partnering with FIRST to conduct a detailed evaluation of the project's implementation.
"Watching the students navigate the Vex challenge and tackle the 'design, built, test' requirements of building a working robot reaffirms for me that with the right tools and a little support, young people can achieve the kind of professionalism and drive to innovate that many companies can only dream of," says BIF communications director Melissa Withers. "It's easy to see why students who have opportunities like this tend to perform better over the long term."
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