Re: How many students does it take to maintain a team?
 

330 has had anywhere between 18 and 9 students in their 7 years of involvement. This year it was 9, with only 5 making the trip to nationals.

This year, they won AZ, were finalists at LA, won chairman's at AZ, 4th seed in Archimedes (and semifinalist), and won a national judges award.

Eric, In 330's experience, having a winning team only helps for a year or two at most. Now the people at the school have gotten so used to 330 winning, that it's no longer a draw.

Re: How many students does it take to maintain a team?
 

Having a small team is definitely not a disadvantage that cannot be overcome

Re: How many students does it take to maintain a team?
 

It certainly is easier to manage and it's not a matter of the amount of team memebers you have it's the level of dedication they bring to the table. Quality over quanity.

Re: How many students does it take to maintain a team?
 

Our team stresses quality over quantity - if you don't contribute to the team, our teacher will kick you off. Malvern Prep is a fairly small school as it is (~440 people in the entire HS), with a lot (too much IMHO) of emphasis on the achievements on our athletic teams, so our team was fairly small this year and will be even smaller next year.

This year:

• Freshmen - 1
• Sophomores - 3
• Juniors - 4
• Seniors - 7

We're going to be hurt a bit by graduation, but we aim to increase recruiting a bit and we also feel that we could build a robot just among us underclassmen as is. Sometimes, however, I do worry about the team going out of existence due to lack of interest - there definitely aren't enough sci/tech activities at our school, and the Malvern community seems to emphasize sports over science.

That being said, I prefer having a small team - everybody on the team contributes something, and there aren't any "hangers-on".