With seconds on the clock, a nervous high school senior named Kevin lines up the shot. He presses a button, and half a dozen balls fly through the air. The D’Penguineers win; the crowd goes wild.
In his latest book, Bascomb makes the case that high school robotics competitions can be every bit as cool as sports. He chronicles the daily dramas of a California team on the path to FIRST, a competition that attracts hundreds of thousands of students annually.
Nerds are the heroes of this epic tale, starting with Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway and founder of the competition in 1989. The team’s leader is Amir Abo-Shaeer, an engineer turned teacher. His dream: to create a new hands-on approach to high school education at Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy.
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