Is anyone mentoring a FIRST Team?

[Ben Zimmer]

I'm totally amazed at how quickly a group of 13 - 15 year olds I am mentoring are picking up and enjoying LabVIEW.

Yesterday, I had one student who was doing some experimenting on his own ask me about shift registers.

I said one word: memory, and he got it.

I started to whip up an incrementing while loop example, and he got it before I was finished. Then I removed the SR and left the zero constant outside the loop and the increment inside the loop and asked what the output would be. "Oh, that would always be one."

Same experience with the "why doesn't the graph update until the loop is finished?" question.

I've taught many adults and countless college students who took MUCH longer to get it.

Anyone having similar experiences?

Do you think kids whose minds are unfettered with expectations, and programming experience are predisposed to get it faster than adults?

I've been volunteering 2 hours a week, and I have to tell you that it is the highlight of my week! (And the competition is still two months away.)

[Aristos Queue]

My experience: If you find a kid who by age 5 has the self-discipline to focus on something for longer than 30 seconds in order to understand how it works, you can hand them any text-based programming langauge as soon as they can really read and then stand back and let them mostly run with it. Software is the most empowering tool in that kid's world at that point--- words that have power to make things happen are generally the domain of adults. LV and NXT Mindstorms are visual languages that can be taught below the reading threshold. I've seen very young kids make incredible headway with these tools. The unteachable part is that focus --- the natural predators who are capable of sitting in the grass for hours waiting for a chance to seize prey.

Curiously enough, when I've described the students that are the best fits for computer science, I get strange looks from my political friends. Apparently those same kids are the ones to watch out for as master politicians. And yet most programmers I meet are apolitical (as a generalization, there are definitely exceptions).

All of this is merely annecdotal, but it is what I keep my eyes open for when teaching.

[hfettig]

I'd love to mentor a team. I contacted FIRST Canada but never got a reply. There seems to be only one team here in Ottawa with enough mentors already.

Do you know somebody I can contact about this?

[Ben Zimmer]

QUOTE (hfettig @ Oct 28 2008, 10:45 AM)

I'd love to mentor a team. I contacted FIRST Canada but never got a reply. There seems to be only one team here in Ottawa with enough mentors already.

Do you know somebody I can contact about this?

Heiko,

I did get some info from Karen at FIRST Robotics Canada (listed here: http://www.firstroboticscanada.org/site/contact) but I actually got hooked up with my team (White Oaks in Oakville) by calling the school directly.

You won't believe how happy you will make the team by helping out. For most teams, it is the programming which has been their biggest challenge in past years, and the "new LabVIEW thing" has many teams concerned.

Ben

[pallen]

QUOTE (Ben Zimmer @ Oct 28 2008, 11:00 AM)

Heiko,

I did get some info from Karen at FIRST Robotics Canada (listed here: http://www.firstroboticscanada.org/site/contact) but I actually got hooked up with my team (White Oaks in Oakville) by calling the school directly.

I looked into the teams in Oakville a couple of months ago. (Used to live just down the road from Appleby College) The presentation at NI Week got me pretty fired up to get involved.

Unfortunately some pretty big projects came up at work and I didn't feel I'd be able to commit the time required for this round. Hopefully I'll be able to get involved at some point though.

[David Wisti]

I have the same problem, the time required for a team might be too much for me. Were starting a new program here in CT called the "Regional Technical Expert" program. This way area Labview experts can provide help to all the Connecticut FRC teams.

QUOTE (pallen @ Oct 28 2008, 02:22 PM)

I looked into the teams in Oakville a couple of months ago. (Used to live just down the road from Appleby College) The presentation at NI Week got me pretty fired up to get involved.

Unfortunately some pretty big projects came up at work and I didn't feel I'd be able to commit the time required for this round. Hopefully I'll be able to get involved at some point though.