Should FIRST expand beyond robotics?

[548swimmer]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

If they do they need to go after a completely different set of people, do not go after the obvious future engineers. They should target the more athletic crowd. Perhaps with competitions involving designing running aids, javelins that fly better, or the like. Show the students that instead of working harder they can work smarter.

This would pull in the same group of future engineers, only the more athletically oriented ones. I am an excellent example of this. I swim for my high school team, rock climb, run, and lift weights. I am also a co-leader of the CAD team. I'm sure there are many students ouit there who are in a similar situation.

I don't totally disagree though. I think that expanding FIRST to a more real-world application would challenge students more. Perhaps each team would have to come up with a better way to accomplish some everyday task. The parts would be done soely in CAD, and then submitted. These parts could be jud ged (sorry, my friend clicked it) on ease of production as well as whether or not they accomplish the task.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by 548swimmer

This would pull in the same group of future engineers, only the more athletically oriented ones. I am an excellent example of this. I swim for my high school team, rock climb, run, and lift weights. I am also a co-leader of the CAD team. I'm sure there are many students ouit there who are in a similar situation.

Yes we occasionally get them but if we were able to take the stereotypical football player and show him that he could be a better player by using his brain wouldn't we all be better off? Hopefully someone smarter than I can come up with a challenge to draw in THAT sort of person.

[548swimmer]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

Yes we occasionally get them but if we were able to take the stereotypical football player and show him that he could be a better player by using his brain wouldn't we all be better off? Hopefully someone smarter than I can come up with a challenge to draw in THAT sort of person.

I'm all for that, though creating an engineering challenge for the non-mechanically minded will prove to be extremely difficult. I agree that FIRST should investigate a challenge like this though.