[JesseK]

I'm with Rich on this one -- FIRST's niche is making science competitive. If FIRST wants to expand outside of that niche, they should not do it alone. Even if they wanted to expand into another robotics area such as SeaPerch (SNAME/ONR would love that one, lol) or Rocketry, they should partner together rather than try to compete with those organisations.

The juxtaposition of using robotics to inspire is that while robotics may be all-encompassing for engineering, it also has the most demanding perceived prequisites -- Math, Science, Spatial Relations and a myriad of others. If FIRST could encourage students to learn these things and get GOOD at them at a much younger age via in-school curricular influences, I'm pretty sure no FRC teams would have any problems recruiting students. Luckily there are many other types of established STEM initiatives such as MathCounts, Science Fairs and even reading programs that could both alleviate these fears and get FIRST into the classroom. Yet if FIRST wanted to wander into these areas, they would be much more effective if they had partners.