[annie1939]

This is the problem I deal with at my school. It can be frustrating. However, out of 200 high school students in the school we have 25 on the team. That's 12.5% of the school. And we don't have a tech type hands on class. AP physics is as close as they get to hands on technology. We do it by being very flexible.

We require at least 30 hours of work during build season to attend a regional.(pretty minimal, but enough toget them to understand FIRST and the game). My goal is to get them hooked. I want them back the next year as opposed to burned out forever. Once we get them hooked, they give more time. I get the kids to sign up for planned times. We will put up a calender and they mark the days that they can attend. That helps us plan.
If they can't make it on the day they planned, they need be responsible and let us know. I also try to let peer pressure take its toll. Everyone writes in their hours worked on a public calendar on the door. If they are putting in too little work, the other kids will let them know about it.
And fewer hours mean that their opinions or desires don't carry as much weight. Kind of a natural consequence of their decision.

Drop ins do more of the button making etc. One of the jobs we have is writing a blog called "Daily Delphi". He summarizes the most active discussions on Chief Delphi and looks for info and tips on build, programming and strategy. He may not get in as often, but he usually has a better "big" picture view of things than the kid who is in there every day. You could actually put a couple of kids on this. Other kids can plan the scouting work. Websites can be worked on at home as well as posters etc. We are lucky to have a laptop program where everyone is supplied with the complete Adobe Suite so they can work at home. We want them there even if it is only for an hour per day. Have those kids act as journalist and interview the builders and engineers about the robot. Then they can write up a flier to be passed out the regional. Have a blogger. They can come and talk to the builders and find out what has been going on. Think of all the other aspects to a business. Could they run a publicity campaign at the school about the team? Handle the budget? Seek more funding? Those activities can add an extra dimension to your program. If they are standing around we grab them up as extra hands. Hold this, put this there, go find that, research this.

Obviously it would be nice to have 20 completely dedicated members whose only activity was Robotics, but our small school population couldn't support it. We would probably win more, but my goal is for them to end up in the top 50-25%. We have done very well so far. Usually we end up in the being picked for the final rounds and last year we came out 2nd in Oklahoma and won the Motorola Quality Award. We won Engineering Inspiration a few years ago.

I think getting more kids into STEM careers is important, but I also think that creating people who support STEM is almost more important. Face it, many people don't have the aptitude for engineering. However, we are also educating the future politicians, CEO's and journalists that might be making decisions or writing about science and technology. I try to lure them into contact with the team. Everyone may not be putting in 200 hours, but if I can leave them with the idea that engineers and scientists are fun, creative and interesting as opposed to thinking of us as some sort of weird clueless alien race I will have improved the world.