[Rick TYler]

Here are some things that you might want to think about:

1. How long will it be? If you are talking about a 5-10 minute sketch you will have time to make one point.

2. It has to be a story. Think about a sentence like this, "this story is about a [person] who wants [something]." Your play will be then about how [person] achieves, gets, or doesn't get [something]. For example: "Rocky is about an aging boxer who never really had much talent who wants to win the big fight to prove that he is a real man." Or, "The Blues Brothers is about two musicians who want to put their band back together and earn $5,000." If you have a simple statement like this, it will help guide your efforts to a conclusion.

3. Make sure your protagonist has some obstacle to overcome. Conflict is the heart of story telling.

4. Focus on story -- not themes. The story can contain a theme, but it will be the story that is memorable.

5. Given your audience, I'd try to include some humor.

How about a scene in the pits. Our heroes make up a rookie team trying to get their BLT working for its first match. It isn't going so well. A mentor (dripped in sweat) is going through the notes from the inspector. He doesn't understand the notes, and clearly doesn't know much about robots. A couple of students are frantically messing with wires or sweesecheesifying or pneumatics or something. People walking by start to slow down and notice the drama going on. A girl asks if she can help. Another student offers to rewire the fuse block. It's like elves on Christas Eve -- all pitching in to help. We hear a PA announcer calling the rookie team to the field, and miraculously the BLT is -- barely -- ready in time for its first match. The people who were helping sort of melt away. Who were those people? FIRSTers. Fade out.