Minimum age for FRC?
 

Seems hard to find.

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

Answer = Newborn

PS: Searching CD for the three words minimum, age, and FRC will find answers and discussions.

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

http://www.firstinspires.org/

Grades 9-12, ages 14-18

Simple.

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

Unless something has changed recently, the ages listed on that part of the FIRST site are recommendations, like the recommended ages on games and toys; and are not rules that must be strictly followed. The rules are in the manuals each year (some rules will start being published on web pages, but we aren't there yet).

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

It's up to the team. The game manual in the past has only required drive team members to be "pre-college," and is typically interpreted to mean "has not yet completed a high-school level diploma." Everything else is fair game. I started FRC in 6th grade and was a human player in 7th grade under the 2011 rules with no issues. If your team is okay with it, then FIRST is generally okay with it.

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

That is intresting. I know that if you are too young (11 is the age i heard) they will not let you sign up in STIMS.

Thats really cool you found a team so early. Up until a few years ago, the team I was on let 8th graders with a connection (older sibling/parent as mentor) on the team, you could be a member of the team.

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

We accept students as early as 6th grade, but for grades 6 and 7 we usually require significant parent involvement. Grade 8 gets a bit more responsibility, and drive team is strictly high school (I thought that was a rule but I'm not positive).

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

There is no specific "Minimum" age, however students must be 14 to be on the drive team - that is a pretty constant rule. Also, I'm pretty sure students need to be 13 to officially register for FRC. There is also usually a rule about students under age 13 being accompanied by an adult in the Pits.

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

From the 2016 manual, secion 3.1.1. There has historically been no explicit minimum age limit on the drive team in the manual. Team imposed rules however may vary.

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

I know a few teams that start training/using drivers from as early as 6th and 7th grade, and maintain them through their high school career. This way by their senior season, they already have 6 seasons of experience, making them (generally) some of the best drivers in frc.

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

Someone just ask 330

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

Our team is mostly high school (grades 9-12) but we have some middle school kids (I think we decided on calling them "Jr. Members"). It did not occur to us that there was an issue until we tried to sign them up in STIMS last week and it requires you to be 13. I don't think that the purpose of this rule is to prevent those under 13 from joining teams. I might be wrong but I believe that you are required to be 13 or over to create an account on any website on the internet without a parent legally.

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

I was a driver on the field (legitimately, as in all STIMS'd and such) in 8th grade (2012) without issue. Unless something has changed I'd imagine the lack of a lower limit would still apply.

Hmm. It's possible that may now be an issue, but I don't think that is meant to keep those ages from participating as you pointed out. Isn't there like backup paper forms that can be filled out and handed in at events?

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

I looked at the rules between Bayou and CMP in 2015, and yes, the only really solid rule about age (at least at that time; standard warning about reading this year's admin manual website) was that the three drive team members who can touch the controls or game pieces must be of "pre-college" age. The reason I checked was that we had difficulty getting through inspection at Bayou because of our pickup, which featured about 20 spring-cushioned 10-32 bolts, used to grab both totes and RCs by the lips around the top of the game pieces. A middle-schooler (brother of a team member) CADded us a non-articulated pickup which we had machined by NASA, and used for several rounds at CMP. While we never signed him up in STIMS, he did come up to CMP driven by his parents, one of whom was a mentor of our team at the time. That family is now at the core of FTC 9958, "Redfish Robotics". OBTW, the original "sprung" pickup passed insepction at CMP much easier than at Bayou.

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

FIRST doesnt limit students being in the program starting at grade 9.
STIMS allows students to officially register from age 13 on their site.

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

I've never tried, but can a parent register a student under the age of 13?

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

How would they? The only way to register is STIMS.

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

This is the reply to an email I sent a while ago

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

I just tested it by making a fake account. You first make a parents account in stims, (you just have to put the parents information in the registration section, I guess stims automatically checks the age to determine if your account is a student account or a parent account). After I made the parent account, I was succesfull able to create an account for a 11 year old- 6th grader, and have the 6th grader account apply to my team.

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

3467 let me on as a 7th grader in the 2013 offseason, and I went on to operate for the team my 8th grade year in 2015.

The decision to let on younger members is completely up to the team.

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

I have not seen any rule about minimum age. However there is one rule, anyone under 12 years must be with an adult, which technically means student cannot freely walk to field or pit without an adult. I will try to find that rule and post details later in the day.

FYI: our team works in one of our sponsor's plant, they have a specific rule, no one 12 or under allowed in our shop. This something you have to keep in mind.

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

The more people keep asking for clarification on this ambiguous recommendation, the more likely there is to be a hard limit established.

As with the game manual, if you can't find a rule against something, proceed with your plans, but have a Plan B ready to go in case the rules change.

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

Lady Cans FRC #2881 was founded in 2009. At that time there were many middle school FRC teams. As a girl scout team, we've always had middle school girls on our team. STEM research shows that if girls are not involved in STEM activities between the 4th - 8th grade, then they won't be interested later in life. We have over 40 girls on our team. We have sustainability, depth of knowledge and continuous mentor-ship. Our alumni are also role models and mentors. Navigating STIMS is sometimes a challenge but paper always works and is legal.

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

The youngest member we had on the team was 3. She is still currently a member at 15.

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

That is amazingly cute and cool at the same time. I took my grandmunchkin to Duel. I outfitted her with the small size safery glasses. We got stopped at the entrance and I got asked "How old is she?" "Three, and she has her own safety glasses." She gave them a big smile, they waved her through and she loved the robots.

Back on topic, do a quick check on your insurance. Sometimes there are issues around roboteers under a certain age using power tools. It won't preclude then from being part, just means you need to wait some before they learn to run your Bridgeport.

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

For the use of power tools we require the student to be in 9th grade.

For coding, and other team functions we invite 8th grades that have been on the FTC team(s) to attend a couple of build sessions per week.

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

For all youth (under 18) the parent (guardian) is the only person that can register a youth. The youth doesn't even need to create an account. Even is an youth creates and account, the information will not show up on the team registration until the parents registers them and completes the permission forms. I am not sure if the registration filters for age, but all the programs registers from STIMs.

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

We have FLL from grades 4-7

We then have FTC for grades 8-9

I invite the 9th graders onto FRC when the FTC season ends. This worked out really well last year. The 8th-9th graders are just not ready for FRC and tend to hide along the walls and blend in with the crowd. Last year the 9th graders coming onto the team hit the ground running and really contributed to the team. Just giving them those years at FTC helps in so many ways.

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

We have students on 2706 who started when they were as young as 12.

To be honest when I first found out about grade 8 students wanting to join, I was skeptical. My opinion was something like "OK, they can tag along." I was proven wrong. Yes, there was one student who wasn't able to contribute much (I think he was just too busy with other commitments) but the majority of our young students are eager, enthusiastic, ready to learn, and always ready to volunteer.

It does take a certain, shall we say, "sense of humour" to work with junior high students, but the rewards for giving them the chance are worth it.

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

Whenever i was that age i didn't have any issues signing up on stims.

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

The drive team being strictly high school is not a rule as far as i am aware. Because i started on the drive team for my team in my 7th grade year.

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

We have taken on 8th graders provided that they were 14 by Kickoff

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

I need to find the rule somewhere about students participating that are "pre-college." I've had a couple of students in the past participate at age 19 before but still in high school.
It is not uncommon for our school to get immigrants from other countries, who are held back a year or 2 when they attend school here in the U.S.

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

For teams considering taking students less that 15 or before 9th grade I recommend you have policies, procedures and infrastructure in place to shield/protect/shepherd the younger students. The difference in maturity level from 13 to 18 is sometimes huuuge. Throwing 9th and 12th graders together is already difficult and adding middle schoolers to the mix is daunting.

We've had some trouble with such things, regretted it later, and decided no middle schooler can join unless his or her parents will come with them to every meeting.

My two cents!

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

In the 2016 game manual, it's in section 3.1.1, T19, and the glossary. Note that "pre-college" is only used to define the drivers and human player and going to the question box.

The 2016 Admin manual only uses this term in section 6.1, in dealings with the Judge Advisor regarding awards questions.

Except for these few cases, there really doesn't seem to be anything mandatory about ages in the rules.

Re: Minimum age for FRC?
 

In our case it might help that we meet at the local library, completely outside school hours. That means that there's fewer curious onlookers who "just happened to walk by" - if you're there, then you wanted to be there and you probably convinced mom or dad to drive you. After a few meetings, we find that the students that keep coming back are the ones who really want to be involved and are willing and ready to learn. If you give them the opportunity to step up, and give them the benefit of the doubt, I bet at least some of them will surprise you.

But, yes, absolutely put policies in place to protect students, including rules on when, where, and how they are allowed to work with tools, equipment, etc.