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Originally Posted by KenWittlief
the whole robot contest thing is just a distraction - its only an excuse to get highschool students and engineers in the same room together - spending time together - taking bus trips together- in the end it hardly matters if the bot runs at all, the students end up being inspired anyway
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We have to remember, where do the Animators, Inventor-ers, and PR people come into play? They may rarely touch the robot, but without it they wouldn't be there. Isn't the purpose of FIRST to inspire students and introduce new concepts that they normally wouldn't have a chance to interact with? Does it
really matter in the long run whether your team's robot is produced by the engineers, the mentors, or the students? In my opinion, as long as the people on a team come together and learn from each other, and have a blast while doing it... then why does it matter how a team operates? As Dean once said (something like this..) - If you and I come together and we each have an idea, then we can learn from each other, and come away not having lost a thing, but both gaining knowledge. As long as that kind of relationship is taking place... then why does it really matter how a team builds their robot?
I don't know about you... but I do Animation, and did not build the robot, but this doesn't mean I cheer less than anyone else on the team at a competition... and that doesn't mean I can't explain what our robot does any less than someone who built it. I cheer because I'm inspired, inspired by the experience of FIRST. It can't be found anywhere else, so make the most of it while you can.