Preparing for the Town Hall Meeting on the New Championships Format

[MikLast]

Originally Posted by ezygmont708

It is about the KIDS!
In talking with a freshman today, I asked what he thought about FIRST Champs as it is his first experience with an event outside the district model>
Reaction > AMAZING!!! "I love seeing the teams and the different ways they solved the same problem"

For everyone who looks solely at the competitive nature of the event, I want to say: I am sorry for you. The experience that students take away from the event is THE important part of the event. Mentors, we are here to support the students in their endeavors to discover and achieve great things. "More than Robots" - quite frankly it is.

As I sit here proctoring two promising young students AP Chem Test Exams, I can't help but notice the general tone of this discussion continuing to divulge into negativity. Does FIRST accomplish 100% of everything correctly on their first try? < NO. Are they trying to make a positive impact on the largest population of students? < YES

I have seen it on our team > Sometimes students experiencing something like Championships is all it takes for them yearn to accomplish bigger and better things. Who are we, as adults, to suggest that any one team or student deserves that privilege more than another.

Put the competition aside for a few minutes... Think about some of the most amazing moments that you have had as a mentor or a student not at a competition. Do those significantly change if there are 6 "World Champions"?

If you are in it for the ROBOTS and not the STUDENTS > Perhaps there is a better place to be spending your energies.

Hi, i am student.

Big thing to think about, 400 teams will be about 800 miles away, never to be seen by you. You will not be able to see them, see how they tackled the challenge, compete against and with them, and learn how they work. Teams like us cant afford either to spend a few grand to go to stuff like IRI or Chezy Champs, so teams like us will never interact with teams in Israel or New York, and vice versa.

For that matter, a lot of my friends (and I) would feel cheated if we were to make it. The feeling of being a "top team" INSPIRES a lot more than people seem to realize. There are people i know who only do stuff like this just to get out of school, or to look cool because we are a decent team. Some students dont realize that its more than just robots, and some wont change that mindset.

Along with that, instead of feeling like you are good, you would just be another team with 800 other teams competing for 1/6th of a title, how fun is that? Or go to a sponsor, "We won 1/6th of a world championship." Not going to go well.

It is about the students, but splitting the championships is not the right way to get more involved, it just annoys and saddens all.