I recently had a call with Dean Kamen, one of the great inventors of our day. I had met him a couple of times over the years and when we talk I am always enlightened. You may know him as the father of the Segway but he also invented the first drug infusion pump and a wheelchair that can navigate stairs and many products that have dramatically impacted the healthcare industry.
If you have read my columns over the years, you know I am highly interested in STEM education and, more specifically, the fact we need to get kids interested in science, technology, engineering, and math at an early age if we are to produce the millions of skilled workers our country will need to grow and expand in the digital age. Dean Kamen has the same vision although in his case he has the money, contacts, and a specific vision to drive this idea forward.
About 25 years ago this November, Dean founded the FIRST program, for the inspiration and recognition of science and technology.
If you are in the tech world, you may have heard of this program. It created the super bowl of robotic championships held each April. The last one in St Louis drew 76,000 people to the event to see 16 finalist teams compete in a big time robotic contest. Each January, FIRST delivers to schools in the program a box of parts that can be used to create these robots and about 105 schools and their students around the world build their unique version of a robot. They then all compete for the 16 coveted spots to go to the event in St Louis to show off their inventions and compete against each other.
Here is a link to their 2014 report that gives an overview of their first 25 years. It gives great detail on how the program has advanced over time.
When I asked Dean why he started this program, he told me he originally thought the problem of kids not being interested in STEM-related projects and ideas was an educational one. He initially sought to try and deal with that issue. He pointed out inventors are problem solvers and he looked at this through the eyes of educators at first. But he said sometimes inventors have to think well beyond what may look like the obvious solution and explore other avenues to solve a problem. He spent a lot of brain power on this and finally realized this is less an education problem and more a cultural one. He said what kids are really interested in are sports and entertainment and their hero’s come from these areas. As he put it “The US culture is driven by sports and entertainment and if we want to get kids excited about STEM, then we have to find a way to make STEM one that includes sports and entertainment in the equation.”
This is what drove him to create the FIRST robotic competitions that are now an international program and include support from major universities as well as large corporations such as Intel, Qualcomm, Boeing, Xerox, Coke, and many, many more.
I plan to write a larger piece about FIRST and, more specifically, Dean’s view that getting kids involved in STEM is a cultural one vs an educational one. I do know there are other approaches to getting kids interested in tech. In a piece I did for TIME magazine, I shared how the SF 49ers were using their stadium, museum, and football itself to bring kids through a dedicated STEM program they run all school year at Levi’s Stadium.
In another piece for TIME, I talked about how Chevron was using golf examples to share how STEM is used to create golf equipment, how wind and weather impact a golf shot, etc. These are good examples of sports as catalysts for STEM learning. But Dean’s approach creates a sports-like competitive atmosphere as well as introducing a broad stroke of entertainment to FIRST’s program; so far it has had great success.
I also want to explore why the media has not really picked up on this given FIRST’s success and its importance to getting more kids interested in STEM. I see this as a big story and, like Dean, wonder why it has not gotten a lot of attention from publications other than tech sites.
I have a request. At Tech.pinons we have bright minds in our readership and they have contributed greatly over the years to the dialog our various columns have started around a multitude of topics. In fact, other tech publishers who read comments from our readers actually marvel at their quality and how much they add to any topic covered. I would like to hear from readers about their views on STEM and, more germane to this future column, how they view Dean’s position that we are dealing with a culture problem, not an education problem. Also, what can be done to get more mainstream media looking seriously at the problem of creating more STEM-based students needed to run our country in the future.
Please look at the FIRST site and, if you have time, scan their annual report. I think there is a lot of merit to the way Dean is tackling this problem but I know there may be other ways to get kids excited about STEM. I would love hearing your thoughts on how to make sure we have enough people with the right skills needed for run our government, schools, and businesses in the future.
Just adding a thought to FIRST. It is a great program for high school across the country. Of course, it’s wildly popular at my wife’s school. where there are plenty of further computer science and engineering students, well off parents, and corporate sponsorship. What we need is to get more help for students who need it. Some relatively hard-off schools have actually done very well at FIRST. The force we in the industry can add will be good for the students–and ultimately for us.
And big thanks to Dean Kamen for his important efforts.
For what it’s worth, IMO, the culture problem leads to the education problem. I remember a few years back reading about a Korean high school science professor (that’s what they call high school teachers, not only in Korea, but Europe as well). This professor made, if I recall $4MM/yr, and had a TV tutoring program. That’s not what impressed me. What impressed me was that he enjoyed “Rock Star” status. I thought to myself “we’re screwed!”.
Now, all hope is not lost. Einstein, Feynman, and others have notoriety among the lay public. Carl Sagan, Michio Kaku, and Neil deGrasse-Tyson are seen as “cool”, by some. The major adjustment that needs to be made is that geeks can actually have a life, be jocks, dancers, singers, not the stereotypes exclusively. We even see these innuendos here…”only geeks care about that…”
Fortunately, we’re a big country. If even 5% are world class, it’s enough.
I was once asked by my former CEO… “If scientists are the smartest people in the world, why don’t they rule the world?” I told him it was because they don’t want to, it doesn’t generally interest them, and the ones that do have entire science fiction novels describing them. Oh, and that he should be grateful that hey don’t. 😉
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