[tsaksa]

From what I have seen most students that are involved with FIRST can still find time for other extracurricular activities. But a few cannot, and if you really had to pick, FIRST robotics is hard to beat. This seems to be by design. Robotics itself offers a lot of things that are rare in many schools today. Real hands on experience putting theory to work and designing, building, debugging and repairing some really cool machines. Getting to work with real industrial components, software, and tools. Robotics all by itself is a really great vehicle for a mixture of fun and learning at a very high level.

But FIRST seems to have found a great formula to take things a lot further. Just being on a FIRST team offers additional opportunities in marketing, fund raising, performance arts, outreach and community service. And then there is that other layer of cooperatition, networking, and the all important team spirit. Until I went to my first regional last year I had no idea how completely immersible the experience can be.

So yes, if you had to pick just one activity it would be hard to beat a robotics competition for the diversity and synergy it can offer. And if it is FIRST robotics, I just don't see anything out there that is even close.