Inspire

 

 

Editor’s note: As students and teachers in the United States head back to school, we wanted to share some inspiring words from Kell Robotics, a FIRST Robotics Competition team based in Georgia actively working to increase the number of qualified STEM teachers in Georgia and around the U.S. Their efforts helped the team win the prestigious Chairman’s Award at the 2018 FIRST Championship in Houston.

Two of Kell Robotics’ student leaders, Mackenzie Sicard and Danielle Newman, spoke at the Showcase event at FIRST Championship about how the FIRST community can play a huge role in educating and inspiring future STEM educators. Read what they had to say below:
 

A year after our team got started, we resolved to put a FIRST team in every school in our state. FIRST is so amazing that we thought it would be easy, but this was not so.

Under the guidance of our amazing FIRST mentors, Kell Robotics has had some significant successes: We started 25 FIRST Robotics Competition teams and hosted countless FIRST LEGO League and FIRST Tech Challenge competitions. We created women and diversity initiatives, we got a lot of press and television coverage, and we briefed politicians and policymakers.

All of that effort was fun and useful, but it was not enough. After all, there are about 129,000 K-12 schools in the United States alone. It is our team’s experience that to really grow FIRST, we need more well-prepared teachers – lots of them – teachers with experience in FIRST!

So how do we get this done?

Filling the STEM teacher pipeline

While Georgia is doing a good job of converting engineers and scientists into STEM teachers at the graduate level, universities are struggling to create an undergraduate pipeline of engineering, technology, and computer science teachers.

According to the Brookings Institute, the 21st-century STEM teacher development challenge is one of the most critical issues in education today.  Our team did a case study on Georgia. The data we uncovered is about Georgia, but the problem is ubiquitous.

Last year, the 24 universities in Georgia conferred undergraduate degrees to 2,500 teachers. The University System of Georgia’s Academic Data Mart cites that of those 2,500 undergraduate degrees, ZERO were prepared to teach computer science, engineering, or technology. Only 17 were prepared as science teachers.

Colleges and universities may not know where to look to find knowledgeable students who are passionate about STEM, but we sure do.  The answer is FIRST.

The human capital within the FIRST community is uniquely poised to be the STEM education leaders of tomorrow.

To develop the confidence and know-how they need to be effective at inspiring the next generation of STEM students, teachers need a FIRST-like experience to truly master the engineering design process and other skills that FIRST provides.

We need FIRST Alumni in teaching and educational leadership.

We must tell the world that FIRST provides a resource money cannot buy: the human capital of FIRST -- people who already have the skills so essential for newly minted teachers.

We hope you will join us in encouraging your current students to become STEM education leaders. And let’s all work together to let every college president, politician, school superintendent, and leader know that the human capital of FIRST is uniquely poised to transform STEM education.

To learn more about Kell Robotics Teacher Development initiatives, visit https://www.kellrobotics.org/teach.

Now FIRST Alumni, Mackenzie and Danielle are headed back to school themselves. Both are first-year engineering students at Georgia Tech. Read more about their work with Kell Robotics mentor Ed Barker in this article from Georgia Tech.  
 

If you have an inspiring story or piece of wisdom that you’ve picked up through your experiences in the FIRST community, please reach out to us at inspire@firstinspires.org and inquire about becoming a guest contributor for Inspire.