Max Age for FRC Participants?

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Andrew_L

The question is if it's after 4 years or not.

Kacey says our daughter can't drive until she's 12.... I didn't even bring up her being in FIRST or driving at all...

[gblake]

Originally Posted by bduddy

Technically, there is nothing (aside possibly from child labor laws) preventing a FRC team from being composed entirely of adults, and hiring for pay students off the street to drive the robot.

(I'm curious - has there ever been an FRC team such as this? I'm not talking about another mentor/student-built debate, I'm talking about a team that didn't even pretend to have students as the focus or major element.)

This mentality, run amok, is one of the dystopian futures I worry about when I (in my personal opinion) see robot-excellence crowding out exposing-students-to-STEM in some CD conversations.

And, I have toyed with a non-mean-spirited version of the idea myself; especially when thinking about student/mentor fun in off-season events.

That sort of possible unintended consequence (the quoted thought) is definitely something to keep in mind when thinking about changing FRC or similar programs.

You get more of what you reward and celebrate ... AKA ... The dog you feed grows.

That said, coming up with a way to use FRC to attract students to STEM careers, regardless of whether the careers include a 4-year college stint, sounds 110% thumbs up to me.

Blake

[Chris is me]

I would interpret "pre-college" to mean "enrolled in high school, but without having yet graduated", or whatever equivalent to that may be.

However, the only meaningful restriction on what a student can do vs what a "mentor" can do is in presenting for awards (Chairman's) or being on the drive team. So involving people older than the "pre-college" definition in any other capacity on the team is just fine.

[Tom Ore]

Originally Posted by Michael Kaurich

...While we are not frowning on our students going to a 4-year college for a STEM degree, the mentor brain trust doesn't see this as the only option and is looking at getting our students jobs within 6 months after graduating high school in a technical field...

Sounds a bit like my background. I went to a vocational high school (graduated 1977) and studied drafting. I worked as a draftsman on co-op my senior year designing concrete batching plants.

I had no thought of going to college until early in my senior year of high school. My drafting teacher came by one day and asked what my plans were. He said he would kick my butt across the room if I didn't go to college and become an engineer. (You could get away with talk like that back then.) I thought he might do it, so I applied to college and went.

My teacher knew me and my skills and pointed me in the right direction. This is one of the things I like about FIRST: Students get the chance to work with engineers, see how they think and solve problems, and get at least some idea of what engineering is like. Lots more information than I had when I went off to college.

Maybe a few of the students you're trying to attract may discover college is an option for them - just like I did.