My team consists of 15 high schoolers. However, only 10 of us are really involved with the building of the robot, programming, or running the club. The other 5 are just people dipping their feet into robotics, and we’re happy to let them do that. However, they are attending an upcoming competition with us, and I’m scared that they will negatively impact our interview. Is it ok for them to remain in the pit area instead of having them come to the interview? If so, should we mention that they are in the pit and why to the judges? Thank you!!!
This sounds like you should really be 3 separate teams. The design rubric would punish you for not having all members be able to independently answer questions. It’s also hard for the judges to address such a group.
I would ask your coach about this, as you aren’t in a supervisory role over the other students, and it’s not really your place to tell them to not come. However, if they aren’t really part of the project, there is going to be no upside to including them, even for them.
1 Like
Thank you for the quick response!
I totally agree that we would benefit from being 3 separate teams. However, this is only the second year of my high school having a robotics team, so we don’t have enough funds to purchase all of the Vex parts needed for another team. From last year to this year we gained 40 members, bringing the size of Kennedy Robotics Club up to 65. We have 6 separate teams, but would obviously prefer to have more. Basically, 3 separate teams is simply not feasible at this point. Hopefully, as time goes on, we will be able to make more appropriately sized teams.
I actually did ask my coach about this already as well as my co-founder and co-president. We are all in agreement that only those who are part of the project should come into the interview. I was more curious if having members stay in the pit would be detrimental for our Awards Scoring? Also, if we should mention to the judges why we have members not in the judging room?
Why are you going to a judging room? The Judge’s guide says all interviews should be in the pits.
Maybe tell the judges that you have a few “apprentice members” that you are mentoring because your organization doesn’t have enough parts for another kit.
5 Likes
At the one competition that we went to last year (at Adelphi University on Long Island), our team was brought into a judging room. I thought that this was the way most competitions handled interviews. My apologies!
I really appreciate your suggestion, it perfectly describes what I was trying to communicate. Thank you again!
If you wanna be that kid… Show them the judge’s guide…
https://www.roboticseducation.org/documents/2019/08/judge-guide-2019-20.pdf/
2 Likes
Teams have done it before. Classic example is the around 20 person smorgasbord that was ITZ 5225a