Design Period, THEN Build Period

[dtengineering]

I agree with the comments and ideas posted here. Figuring out a way to make something like this work in the FIRST context will certainly require an iterative design cycle.

While I appreciate the simplicity of the current six-week do everything model, and am happy to play the game under the current rules, perhaps we can brainstorm a way that we can have more time for design. In my classes I always force the kids to come up with a reasonable set of plans on paper before I let them start cutting or building, and I would like to see something like that for FIRST. (They can change their design if they run into unexpected difficulties, but they have to be able to explain what went wrong and how they plan to solve the problem before they get any additional material for a re-do.)

Jason