TEAM DUCT TAPE

REDMOND, Wash., July 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Microsoft Research, in collaboration with Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates, today launched a Web site that makes an acclaimed lecture series by the iconic physicist Richard Feynman freely available to the general public for the first time.
The lectures, which Feynman originally delivered at Cornell University in 1964, have been [...]

In Carnegie Corporation: ‘Do school differently ,eSchool News looks at the Carnegie Corporation’s new report, “The Opportunity Equation: Transforming Mathematics and Science Education for Citizenship and the Global Economy,“  that advocates for changes in the way American schools and colleges deliver STEM education.
From eSchool News: “Specifically, the report calls for common standards in math and [...]

Dr. Paul Bresnan, coach of Lakeland’s FTC Team Mechanical Flightless Waterfowl, and just back from a volunteer stint at the 2008-9 FTC World Championship, alerted us to the results of FTC Team Unlimited’s FTC Futures Forum, held at the event on April 16.  The intent of the forum was to discuss, “possible future enhancements for [...]

This year, there are all sorts of new ways for teams to stay connected, informed, updated and educated, both nationally via the FIRST Community (Good job growing our group there, Florida – we’re up from 45 members to nearly 70!) , as well as through several new communications communities the Florida [...]

The Wall Street Journal (and others) reports on the state of education ( in Few Gains are Seen in High School Test) show minimal improvement in math,  underscoring the vital need for programs like FIRST robotics:
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U.S. high-school students haven’t achieved any significant gains in reading or math for nearly four decades, according to a new [...]

Some Team Duct Tape members joined FWCS-ASME engineers for their monthly dinner meeting which, this month, featured Paul Wahnish of the Career Technical Education Foundation.  Mr. Wahnish, whose work with FIRST in Florida includes the annual off-season event, Tempest ‘n Tampa and East Lake High School’s Robotics Boosters programs, gave a great overview of the [...]

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The 2009 FIRST World Championship wrapped up today. Einstein’s Daughters, an all-girl team from San Diego, took the top FTC Inspire Award.  I’m sure more news, pictures and video will be forthcoming in the days to come, but it’s clear that FIRST Tech Challenge is an educationally engaging, competitive and fun [...]

A Team Duct Tape parent caught this interesting piece in the Journal of New England Technology:
“…higher education has become a “choke point” between high school programs like entrepreneur Dean Kamen’s FIRST Robotics Challenge and the companies that form the robotics industry, according to David Barrett, a robotics professor at Olin and a member of the [...]