How are your school VEX teams set up?

[DiodeTech]

Our team does not have a senior team issue, since there will be one senior, me, but I came across this problem in boy scouts when our scout master had the brilliant idea of changing the patrol structure from age, to evenly distributed age groups. This resulted in two things chaos and ineptitude. Chaos was the result of the kids wanting to be with their friends, they would never work in their patrols since they would break off to be in a group with their friends. ineptitude was the result of the younger kids learning that if they complained enough, someone would give up and do it for them. Now some of them cannot even put up a tent. This resulted in many kids in my age group deciding to stop going. Some have not been on a trip in more than a year. Babysitting whining kids is not what we wanted to do. Especially since many things you need to stand over them to get them to do something like clean up, or to prevent them from getting hurt(one almost blew himself up.) I do not recommend this structure, by age the kids learn to do it themselves learn from their own short comings and if they have so much trouble, they can ask another group. There is nothing wrong with asking questions. They say you learn leadership in scouts, I believe I now know how not to set up groups where the object is to learn. Change all of the above activities to robotics related ones, and that is what I believe will happen.

[banditofernando]

I'm bringing this to an end. Our team is getting together to talk and fix everything.

[1148]

For me I am in charge of a team made mainly made of boys and another who leads a team made of girls.

[jsnlong]

Be sure when you are talking this over with parents, teachers and kids that you don't stress picking kids who are better for one team. That will never win a fight ALSO remember sometimes in school sports you don't get to be on a team with your friends all the time. Think of it as a chance to make new friends and its also a great way to help younger team members grow to that "veristy" level.


Good luck on your problem and remember to have fun no mater the outcome.

[subiime]

Team 404 is only 1 team. We just have 5 robots, 404, 404A, 404C, 404D, 404E. There is no separation between members, no real hierarchy of members besides captains and regular members. All members work on all the robots, all members fundraise together by bakesales, and all members have dinner together every evening (yes, literally every evening) during the season. One big happy family

We skipped 404B because no one likes the letter

[EAKC]

On Friday we had a meeting and the officers decided that for this next season we are going to have a group of 2-4 "core" members per team and every other member will be a "floating" member. This was because there was a serious lack of commitment from a few people. We're hoping that this either encourages people to want to commit more time or it allows those 2-4 members to get more done during the season.

[Delta]

We have one team so... it organizes itself. I think a senior team would be fine iff you constantly include the younger members of your club in your design process. While being a senior is cool, you have a responsibility to your younger members.

[BROWNELL-TALBOT]

At our school, we have one freshmen team FOR SURE. This year we didn't split because only about half the freshmen team regularly showed up so there was no need. If you're not a freshman, you are free to choose your team. Usually people try and team up in their normal friend groups. The downside to this is that (if you're weird and don't think) you can come out with say 3 builders and no programmer or driver. So you have to pick and choose for your needs. It's also easier to let people choose their own team because then everyone gets along better and people aren't about to kill each other. Then the older members will work with the younger, less experienced people as needed. Since we're all in one kind of small space we share and debate ideas. It works pretty well.

Hope this helps!

[StillWearingTheClock]

Originally Posted by subiime

All members work on all the robots

Our friends from ECR have the same idea we do. While we have a few "core" members for each team, even they work on the other robots. Because we have very few people to prepare three teams for competition, we almost have to work this way. As a benefit, we've been able to develop our designs together and test out different options against each other at tournaments (for example, in November and December, 1437z had a 6-motor drive and 2-motor lift, while 1437x had a 4-motor drive and 4-motor lift). If teams work together, they don't each have to invent the wheel, which saves time and speeds development.

[The VEX Raptors]

Originally Posted by subiime

We skipped 404B because no one likes the letter

Poor B...