Why do teams voluntarily do FIRST without adult technical mentors?

[KenWittlief]

I think the problem here is that FIRST is so complex, and the yearly robot games are so much fun that people get lost in it, get caught up in it, and never see the big picture.

If the core of FIRST was something more mundain, like a popsickle stick bridge building contest, or an egg drop contest then we would not have thousands of HS students lineing up to join FIRST because dropping eggs out of a 5 story window is just so much fun.

But building a 100 lb, 2HP drivetrain robot, and getting to drive or control it in matches against other teams - what a blast!

Thats where people lose sight of the big picture. Im willing to bet some teams dont even know there is a big picture.

Our society and culture needs more engineers and scientists. If you put up a poster at school, and had an engineer come in all day saturday to talk about engineering, how many students would show up, to listen to someone talk all day about data driven analysis, the engineering design cycle, closed loop feedback control systems and the intimate details of PID loops?

Can students put together a team, take the kit and build something that runs, and even compete in the games successfully? Absolutely.

Can students figure out what a career as an engineer or scientist will be like on a day to day basis, without ever talking to an engineer, or getting the chance to work side by side with one for 13 weeks or more? Can students re-invent all the processes and concepts that engineers have created and developed and refined over the last 100 years? No way!