Texas has joined Connecticut and Minnesota in leading the way for students to play varsity robotics while gaining valuable career skills.
The state activities association in Texas, in collaboration with FIRST, a K–12 not-for-profit focused on STEM participation, is now offering two million students access to robotics. Teachers and students from 1,400 high schools and 1,500 middle schools in Texas will engage in project-based, hands-on robotics engineering challenges. The pilot program includes opportunities to make robotics an official sport so teams can benefit from the same support other sports receive. These efforts come at a critical time, as STEM occupations are growing 1.7 times faster than non-STEM careers, according to the Office of Science and Technology Policy. FIRST participants are two times as likely to major in science or engineering, and 89.6 percent of FIRST alumni are currently in a STEM field as either students or professionals.
More information at techlearning.com/feb16
