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Originally Posted by Gary Dillard
It's in the RUMOR MILL section, hence it is a RUMOR. Personally I find it entertaining to see what gets started in this particular forum section and have people go off the deep end. I doubt that any useless post would get a couple thousand views and a hundred replies (so far) in 3 days as this one has. It doesn't matter to me if the teacher actually said it or not, or if he made it up or not; anything here is hearsay so you can take it for what it's worth - usually nothing.
I disagree. What are we trying to do in the competition / build season? Get kids to think, think out of the box, think through all possibilities. Look through all the posts - noone is off starting or changing their robot design based on this rumor, but they're thinking through "what could that mean?" How would we do it differently if there were 3 on 3, or 5 at a time, or no center structure? If I started a rumor that I heard the robot had to carry a cup of coffee for the whole match, I doubt anyone would take it seriously but they would start thinking "how would we do that?" Same thing with the FIRST is selling old motors threads, etc. - we may think we know the reason but until the game is announced it's all speculation.
It's also useful for teaching students that they need to read the rules, not rely on what what they've heard or remember. They change every year and relying on rumors is as bad as relying on "it was that way last year".
I'm very impressed with how well this rumor did; my attempt last week didn't generate much attention even after I recruited Arefin to help me. Nice job Aaron! And yes, it should have been a separate thread because it's a separate rumor.
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Listen,
I understand that I am in the rumor mill, and i understand that it is a rumor. I don't like the fact that things in the rumor mill show up, by default, in the portal. I have already written Brandon about getting this changed.
On another note, we can agree to disagree about ways to motivate your students. I have mine, and you yours. That's what makes FIRST such a wonderful program; different ideas create different things. My team is composed of 95% unexperienced FIRST students, from many different schools. My team wasn't just something centered at a single high school. I figure, if we petition ourselves to multiple high schools, we get the best and most excited ones from many different schools. And, it has worked.
Good luck to you and everyone else in the upcoming season. Weather it be on a hexagonal field, or with 15 robots. It doesn't really matter to me.
-Alex