It's Way #MoreThanRobots: Helping Build 21st Century Skills through FIRST
Shhh… Don’t tell the students but the FIRST robotics experiences of our Team Duct Tape members, and all youth involved in FIRST, are about way #morethanrobots. As a matter of fact, one of the greatest areas of impact for students participating in FIRST programs is in the category of “21st Century Skills”, those often misnamed “soft skills” that are anything but "soft". 21st Century Skills are generally those involving:
- Critical thinking
- Creativity
- Collaboration
- Communication
- Information, Media and Technology literacy
- Adaptability
- Leadership
- Initiative and
- Social skills
These are the key skills needed every day in school, work, family and social environments, and critical elements of a civil society.
While earning a spot in the FIRST Championship in Houston is a great honor, it also brings great responsibilities, adding another 12 weeks to Team Duct Tape's season, and to students’, families’ , coaches’ and mentors’ already demanding lives. Those 21st Century Skills come into play at every meeting, as team members exercise critical thinking in evaluating engineering and design challenges and options, in communicating effectively through differences of opinion, in adapting and pivoting quickly when the unexpected happens, in being collaborative and inclusive as they work together and with other teams.
These can be tall orders for anyone, let alone a team of teenagers. Yet their FIRST Tech Challenge experience requires the fulfillment of this tall order to rise to the challenge of being a strong competitive team of mature and professional individuals.
Supporting the team's Go Fund Me campaign, to help with competition expenses, recognizes the hard work team members are investing in their own character, as well as in their robot build, and inspires them to live up to the confidence and trust placed in them by all the caring adults in their lives, to become the capable and successful individuals we know they can be, for their future and ours.
You can learn more the team in the video below:
Share freely, and if you'd like be help make the future, please consider volunteering with or donating to the Foundation for Community Driven Innovation, where you can mentor teams, sponsor programs , help teach or build your own future!