Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew Schuetze
Or consider Botball as potential feeder program for FIRST by having middle schools compete. There is already FLL and Jr. FLL but then there are options such as EARLY and Botball.
Here in San Antonio, TX we have an initiative growing to get middle schools competing in Botball. (The architech for the Botball controller is Rich LeGrand whose lab/Co. is in Austin, Texas Charmed Labs)
Additionally, since SA is a big BEST area we are getting elementary schools to compete in GEAR city-wide while some school districts are also adding in EARLY neighborhood tournaments.  |
In our are we use a variety of programs to spread robotics that can be seen on the
Houston Robotics website. We do EARLY, FLL, BEST, Botball, and FRC as well. And the greatest thing about all of these programs is that they all feed into each other... EARLY teaches the students a little bit about building robots, FLL teaches them programming and makes them think a little more about design, BEST makes them think about design but on a new level as well as some more programming, Botball teaches them about programming in depth and gets them ready for FRC which makes them look more in depth into the different types of engineering and lets them work with professionals.