Quote:
Originally posted by M. Krass
Are you suggesting that giving a team the opportunity to spend three or more days surrounded by the best teams in the country isn't a learning experience?
...that the students won't see new ways of doing things, learn new ways of implementing solutions, or otherwise be hugely inspired by the amazing display of humanity and machinery that comes together during that event?
I'm not sure I'd agree at all.
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I do agree that it is a great learning expierence, I've been there. But I also think that it would be a logistical nightmare for everyone to go every year, (we'd fill just about every hotel in any city we chose!) and I think that there is something to be learned and gained from the current situation. The fact that you have to earn points to go may seem a little biased against new teams (well, maybe not just a little...) but if you have to work to go, you are more inclined to work for it, whereas if you can get there by "mooching" points, you are less likely to work as hard as you would otherwise. Nobody wants to think that's true, but it has been proven numerous times. At the same time, you don't have to go to nationals to learn. If you don't go to nationals, it gives you that much more time to workout what went well, and what didn't, and work on changing it for the next year. In addition, just because you can't go, doesn't mean you can't watch webcasts, or the movies that numerous teams record and make available to the public. I know it's not the same, but it still offers you the chance to learn. To look at this in a slightly different light, in the light of a previous poster, how would you feel if your robot did spectacularly, and won every match it was in, and yet, you recieved no special recognition? Well, that wouldn't be "fair" to you, but it would be fair to the rookie team that had absolutely no expierence with building robots before. There are two sides to every story, and we've got to look at both. I stand by my opinion that it would be a greater benifit to a team to send people to teach, than to send points. That, of course, is just my opinion, and I appreciate you discussing your opinion with me.