[Adam Shapiro]

Montclair High School currently has two teams, a coed team (555) and an all-girls team (1929). It has been my experience that while having a second team may help interest additional girls initially, it is a tremendous undertaking that is in no way easy to do. It is very difficult to divide resources, mentors and advisors, students, and workspaces evenly between two teams. In the end, while much good does indeed come out of having an all-girls team, it also brings a great deal of stress and struggle, both for the students and for the advisors, that makes building both robots, and both teams, very difficult.

That is not at all to say that it can't or shouldn't be done. The students on both teams at Montclair High School have done an excellent job in the past, and continue to impress me now. I do believe, though, that however the splitting of the teams is done - whether the teams are completely separated, or work closely together - an element of competitiveness is bound to surface that may make it very difficult for the students to learn from one another as they would on the same team.

Instead of creating a separate FRC team solely for girls, I might suggest that you create an all-girls group to compete in additional competitions (FTC for example). Competitions on the FTC scale can be just as exciting and just as good of a learning experience as FRC, but will allow the entire team to work and learn together to build the robot for the FRC season.