[EricH]

Originally Posted by Peter Chen

The issue in Michigan isn't really about which teams FiM gives grants to. The issue is which ages FiM will allow to participate in FLL (and FTC). Here's part of the e-mail that was sent out by FiM:

That part: "This is the only way to have team in Michigan." concerns me.

Translation #1: Either somebody didn't copy this right, or somebody needs more English classes. Probably the latter is the case.

Translation #2: All the alternate approaches discussed previously are OUT. Regardless of whether the students, teachers, or schools are ready for this progression, they have to make it. That's FiM's line, and they're sticking to it. Whether it's a good idea or not is up for debate.



I'm going to make a prediction. I don't know if it's possible to track it, but I suspect that the number of high schools involved in FIRST will FALL, rather than RISE. And I'm going to go out even farther and predict that the driving factor--for once--won't be the lack of mentors. It'll be the lack of funding, or the lack of administration support for playing in FRC. I REALLY hope I'm wrong on both counts.

Spoiler for Reasoning:

The reason I'm saying this is simple: Right now, that number of high schools is FRC+FTC+rookies. Now, we remove FTC from that equation. FRC+rookies. But, some FTC schools will make the jump--call them FRC2 to distinguish from raw rookies. Now we have FRC+FRC2+rookies. If that number of rookie FRC school teams is < the number of FTC teams lost, the number of high schools involved in FIRST will be going down. Plain and simple.

I leave it to the reader's discretion as to whether it is better for a high school to be in FRC, FIRST, or some other STEM program (VRC--who, if they're alert enough, can probably scoop up a few extra teams--or somebody else I'm not aware of).