Maine Robotics

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Maine Robotics

• Tom Bickford
• President Director

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How does Maine Roboticsscale our endeavors to
become as readily accessible to middle and high
school students as sports and music?

• The Question

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Why Robotics?

• Robotics is a multi-disciplinary program that
  crosses most areas of technology, engineering,
  science and mathematics
• Mechanical and electrical engineering
• Physics
• Communications
• Programming
• System development
• Team work and problem solving
• Children and Youth find it challengingand
  exciting

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A Quick Look

• Incorporated in 2004, Board of Directors (3) and
  Advisory Board (5)
• 1 full time employee, up to 9 temporary staff,
  and over 100 volunteers across the state
• 6 large state-wide events each year
• 60,000 annual operating budget
• All programs are growing, primarily by word of
  mouth
• Work with approximately 100 adults and 700 youth
  each year

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What we do

• FIRST LEGO League
• Maine Robot Track Meet
• FIRST TECH Challenge
• Washington County Robot EXPO
• Teacher and School Workshops

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What we do

• Summer Camps
• Since 2002 - focusing on engineering, computer
  science, and technology
• In 2007 we held 11 weeks of camp in 5 different
  cities
• 177 campers attended the week long day-camps
• Staff are a mixture of classroom teachers and
  college engineering and computer science students
• In 2008 we expect to hold 20 weeks of camp in at
  least 8 different Maine communities. Thats 320
  campers!

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What we do

• Maintain the www.mainerobotics.org Website
• Publish the Maine Robotics newsletter that goes
  out to 1000 people and schools around the state
• Provide phone and email support

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Our Impact

• Over 700 students participated this year in one
  of our programs
• Over 21,000 collective hours spent learning
  about problem solving, technology, engineering
  and computer programming

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How do we grow our next generation?

• Motivate
• Excite
• Mentor
• Follow-through
• Spend 10-20 years developing world class
  professionals
• In-school programs, youth camps, after school
  programs
• You keep them involved in the elementary, middle,
  high school and collegiate levels

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Where the model should be applied

• Professional athletes spend 20 years preparing.
• Professional engineers and technologists usually
  have to wing it
• 50 million youth in sports programs from
  childhood to college
• Only a few thousand professional sports positions
  they can move into
• Over 2,400,000 engineers in the US
• California alone has over 5000 engineering or
  engineering related vacancies at any given time
• Less than 60,000 students graduating from
  engineering each year no change in 20 years

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The Educational Pipeline
50,000,000 K-12 students
IF YOU CANT GET THEM IN ONE END THEY CANT
COME OUT THE OTHER!
lt60,000 engineers per year
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Applying the model to Academics

• Turn focus away from a one size fits all method
  of teaching
• Offer more to the academically or engineering
  oriented student
• Encourage in school and after school programs
  such as math clubs, science clubs, vacation and
  summer camps

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Challenges Facing Growth

• Funding and support of local science, technology,
  and mathematics programs in school and after
  school in the hundreds of communities around
  Maine.
• Lack of adult mentors for youth.

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How does Maine Roboticsscale our endeavors to
become as readily accessible to middle and high
school students as sports and music?

• The Question

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