[Doug G]

I recruit the students that I want in the class. It works for the most part, about 80% continue to particpate the next year. I go to the 8th graders in May and recruit them as incoming freshman. It seems that getting about 6 of them as freshman each year is good. Of course this entails that you have upper classman already on the team. I also teach senior year physics and AP physics and I find it easier to recruit the freshman than the seniors in physics. Mostly because the seniors have jobs, AP classes, and otherwise a lot of scheduling conflicts. But by the time the freshman become seniors they probably stick with the team. Anyhow, don't underestimate having large numbers of freshman on your team, it'll be good for your team in the long run and you'll find out that they typically can spend a lot of time dedicated to robotics (at our school the freshman academic load is easy.)