So, we just got done with OSU-M and it was HS/MS combined. I want to see everybodies opinion on these competitions. All middle school teams got destroyed by high school and that is what usually happens at these competitions. I like them but we do them too much where it gets annoying since middle school teams don’t get more chances to qualify or meet their skill level. All opinions are accepted and speak your mind.
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Well I mean, take it or leave it. The school probably doesn’t have the time or budget to do it any other way so they combine them. If anything it just ensures that if a middle school team does get through, they’ll do rly good at states
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there aren’t enough middle school teams for them to realistically have the same number of events as highschoolers. and middle school teams can do really well against high school teams, 369a is a really op middle school team here in socal.
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MS teams are definately at a disadvantage, but they can be competitive at mixed events. For the best MS teams, competing with HS teams is great experience. Usually just the opposite for HS teams. Better to have MS only events, if there are enough teams in the area to support an MS only event.
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It just sucks since most ohio middle teams weren’t there. we were against 598 or 6008 which are the best teams in ohio for high school.
They can. It was a huge comp. 61 teams and only around 10-20 were middle
We need more MS only competitions, but I also don’t want them to be excluded from high school events.
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I do not mind mixed events at beginning of season, but later on think it is better to have more MS only events. We are doing our best as EPs to improve MS competition experience in our region.
Yeah, Mixed events are good early but later on no. We do HS/MS combined a lot.
Unpopular opinion (I have a lot of them) but MS teams actually have a sort of advantage over HS teams because they have a lot more time usually (MS not very busy). They usually have less experience which is a disadvantage but they get a lot more time which can compensate. At my last 3 competitions there were some MS teams that did really well (and even won) although they were mixed.
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Some tournaments have high school excellence and middle school excellence awards. That means two awards, both a high school and middle can get to state. Not always though
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What do you mean by “more time”? Do you mean they have less busy schedules? Less homework, fewer extracurricular activities?
Separating Middle school from High school in a tournament is not possible in our area (Taiwan)
There are only a total of 7 middle school teams that are competing in our world qualifiers, probably not worth it to make a separate competition
I think most regions will have the same problem where there aren’t enough middle school teams to let them compete in a separate competition. Right now combining middle and high school teams is probably the only economically viable option.
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we have lots of middle school teams in Ohio
Middle schoolers cannot take AP classes (unless thy r super smart), so they have less HW. Also, HS sports are more involved because they are competing against more competitive teams.
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Hmmm… Not seeing that in the middle schoolers that I have. They are in band, sports, theater, and other extra curriculars. Younger students seem to try out more activities, whereas in high school they figure out what they like and focus.
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Experience is a much bigger factor than u make it out to be. High schoolers do things faster and batter. Middle schoolers have to do research and make tons of little mistakes. The theoretical extra time for middle schoolers usually doesn’t mean anything
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It’s interesting because in my state we have the exact opposite problem: there are too many MS only competitons. In South Carolina, there’s about the same number of MS and HS teams, and there are only 10 blended competitons, with over 15 MS only.
It actually ended up being a pretty big problem because a lot of HS teams have trouble going to any event whatsoever due to MS teams taking both the spots in the blended and MS only events
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I would beg to differ. As a HS student I agree that we are very busy but at the same time myself and others on our team make time for robotics. The HS students are in the lab for the most hours mainly because most of us have zero life outside school and robotics. While an MS student might have more available time I have yet to see a trend in truly dedicated MS students who use up all of that available time in robotics.
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MS Student can be dedicated to robotics, MS is when you are learning about new materials and not plastic. (EDR) But HS usually have more experience than MS.