[MSBlaster]

What everyones been posting so far is good ideas, I myself like to give in to food and lectures every once in a while, as long as they're both together, but have you actually asked the freshmen what they want to do? When i was a sophomore, My level of knowledge on what to do to help the team was as high as the copyright link on this page. And so you can guess, my level of involvement went down as well. But when it came to the actual competition, I found myself doing a lot of work with the strategy gathering, as I had a knack for that. Hence, I'm the strategy leader this year, and until the team actually competes, just try to help where I can.

So what I'm saying is, sit these kids down individually and ask them why their involved with the team. If they say they're on the team to help design the robot, then get them together in a group to brainstorm ideas to design. If they want to build, still get them in that group to brainstorm, but get them to build after the design is done. And as for the teachers, I find that mentioning that it could get them out of the faculty meeting every week usually works quite well in getting their particapation.