Quote:
Originally Posted by MrJohnston
I very much disagree with the idea of limitting pit access. The pits are the best place to come and interact with students, see the robots up close and really learning what goes into them. As I lead a field trip of fourth graders around, I noticed their fascination with their close-up view of robots and they loved watching HS kids making repairs. They REALLY loved collecting buttons, etc. For them, it was their coolest field trip ever - something they will never forget - talking about inspiring another generation of engineers! Instead, we need to focus on doing whatever needs to be done in order to keep them safe from teh masses we invite to the competitions.
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The culprits who cause crwoded pits aren't normally spectators or media or local groups coming to see what's going on. It's normally students from the same team using the pit as a social haven. I'm fine with people who don't normally see what goes on behind the bumpers looking in the pits for a few minutes and asking questions, because they are genuinely curious, and usually are polite enough to make room for other robots. It's when there are multitudes of other team members who choose to swarm the pit of their team and also take up all of the aisle that it's an issue.