[mesamb1]

What you might ask is why your principle is concerned with 9th graders being in FRC instead of FLL. Our team is similar to yarden.saa, with a middle school and elementary school as well as a high school.

We have had 8th graders(the final year of our middle school) on the team when ever they have an interest ever since we began, because our schools sports teams allow 8th graders on their teams in a Jr. Varsity role. The biggest concern was safety.

We solved the issue by requiring middle school students to make sure their parents knew and were okay with them going to robotics after school, and requiring a parent to come along for the trip to a regional(or championship). The parents as a result became more involved in the program(a good thing), and felt safer knowing what their son or daughter was up to. On the team they are then treated as much members as any high school student. In 2010, our 8th grader students designed, tested and refined our award winning kicker completely on their own.