[Liz Smith]

I helped with an all girls team which was created in a school where there was already a co-ed team. I am also a girl. I have a bunch more to say about forming all girls teams than I can fit in this post.. so if you have specific questions about it you can always PM or IM me.

Just to briefly give my opinion, I think you should stick with one team. There's a lot more,as you probably know, that goes into running a team than just the money. 2x the organization, planning, meetings, space... its not easy. There are also details that need to be thought through. For instance, would you build identical robots? Would you just share space? Would there be free exchange of ideas?...Or would the two teams be competing against each other? Would there be a boys vs. girls attitude?

There is also controversies with putting all girls on one team. If the leaders and mentors who decide to do this are male, it may look like you are trying to clear the girls out of the picture even though it probably isn't the intention. Sort of a "lets give the girls a robot so they don't screw this one up" mindset. I know that's not the intention, but it really can happen. From your information you gave about your team last year, it looks like not many if any of the girls were on the team last year. Do they know enough skills yet, or would it be more beneficial to have some experienced students guiding them?

While all-girls team may sound like a great way to get girls involved in engineering, there's a deeper level to it. Over the past few years I haven't really established my exact opinion on forming secondary all-girls team in schools. Just make sure to think through the pros and cons as a whole group before you make such a big decision.