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Unread 23-06-2002, 23:06
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#0047 (ChiefDelphi)
 
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Re: Eating lead in 2000

Posted by Susanne Krussell.

Coach on team #163, The Quantum Mechanics, from International Academy and Quantum Consultants/Eaton/ITT.

Posted on 5/31/99 11:18 AM MST


In Reply to: Eating lead in 2000 posted by michael bastoni on 5/31/99 9:00 AM MST:



Great message, Michael. Will you come and coach with us??
I agree wholeheartedly that more play time would be just the ticket. I have done this for 2 years with 2 different teams, and have not had ANY practice time both years. i realize that a lot of teams have the same predicament. Post-nationals games could help......one example of that was Zeeland in western Michigan. They held a post-nationals competition for the 2nd year, however, this year they decided to charge $250 to play!! I know they wanted to raise funds, but it prevented some of the 'less monied' teams from participating (like us!). If fees are going to be charged for the small local games, we need to know in advance.

I also agree that more time before competitions would make a difference. I don't see this happening though, for 2 reasons. 1) most of us continue to get the job done by the deadline. 2) There would be a lot of conflicts (calendar-wise) for engineers, kids and coaches. holidays, school breaks, etc. So I'd bet big money that the pre-competition time-line will not change.

Format: I'll repeat myself....please do not exclude teams from Nationals. All that time and money you spoke of really is a factor, and for those who do poorly during regionals to be 'cut' would be enough to discourage the teams, both the kids and the companies from not re-funding the following year. Yikes!

What do kids want? How many kids have actually been asked this question? I have asked, and the answer is mostly the same answer from a large number of kids: they want more involvement in the design and construction of the machine. They CAN do it. At the risk of sounding unpleasant or ungrateful, (and I swear that I'm not) it sometimes appears that the competitions are 'Engineer vs. Engineer', or 'Company vs. Company', and not so much 'high school team vs. high school team'. So for the kids who get more hands-on construction and participation, those few moments on the field you spoke of are not the ONLY reward they get. Their reward in great part is being fortunate enough to be on a team during the preparation time. I guess I'm speaking the obvious here, eh? But if field time was the only reward, FIRST would not be the success that it is.


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