{"product_id":"2940169319910","title":"The New Cool: A Visionary Teacher, His FIRST Robotics Team, and the Ultimate Battle of Smarts","description":"\u003cp\u003eThat Monday afternoon, in high-school gyms across America, kids were battling for the only glory American culture seems to want to dispense to the young these days: \u003ci\u003esports \u003c\/i\u003eglory.  But at Dos Pueblos High School in Goleta, California, in a gear-cluttered classroom, a different type of \"cool\" was brewing.  A physics teacher with a dream - the first public high-school teacher ever to win a MacArthur Genius Award -- had rounded up a band of high-I.Q. students who wanted to put their technical know-how to work.  If you asked these brainiacs what the stakes were that first week of their project, they'd have told you it was all about winning a robotics competition - building the ultimate robot and prevailing in a machine-to-machine contest in front of 25,000 screaming fans at Atlanta's Georgia Dome.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut for their mentor, Amir Abo-Shaeer, much more hung in the balance.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe fact was, Amir had in mind a different vision for education, one based not on rote learning -- on absorbing facts and figures -- but on active \u003ci\u003ecreation\u003c\/i\u003e.  In his mind's eye, he saw an even more robust academy within Dos Pueblos that would make science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)\u003ci\u003e cool\u003c\/i\u003e again, and he knew he was poised on the edge of making that dream a reality.  All he needed to get the necessary funding was one flashy win - a triumph that would firmly put his Engineering Academy at Dos Pueblos on the map.  He imagined that one day there would be a nation \u003ci\u003efilled \u003c\/i\u003ewith such academies, and a new popular veneration for STEM - a \"new cool\" - that would return America to its former innovative glory.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt was a dream shared by Dean Kamen, a modern-day inventing wizard - often-called \"the Edison of his time\" - who'd concocted the very same \u003ci\u003eFIRST\u003c\/i\u003e Robotics Competition that had lured the kids at Dos Pueblos.  Kamen had created \u003ci\u003eFIRST\u003c\/i\u003e (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) nearly twenty years prior.  And now, with a participant alumni base approaching a million strong, he felt that awareness was about to hit critical mass.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut before the Dos Pueblos D'Penguineers could do their part in bringing a new cool to America, they'd have to vanquish an intimidating lineup of \"super-teams\"- high-school technology goliaths that hailed from engineering hot spots such as Silicon Valley, Massachusetts' Route 128 technology corridor, and Michigan's auto-design belt.  Some of these teams were so good that winning wasn't just hoped for every year, it was expected.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe New Cool, \u003c\/i\u003eNeal Bascomb manages to make even those who know little about - or are vaguely suspicious of - technology care passionately about a team of kids questing after a different kind of glory.  In these kids' heartaches and headaches - and yes, high-five triumphs -- we glimpse the path not just to a new way of educating our youth but of honoring the crucial skills a society needs to prosper.  A \u003ci\u003enew cool.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47114291708144,"sku":"2940169319910","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940169319910_p0.jpg?v=1763679444","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940169319910","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}