The truth is that I think Robotics is awesome!!  This is one of the easiest ways to attract students towards STEM.  When they see robots performing tasks, they are fascinated and want to know how to get involved.  I believe First competitions really help students with their collaboration skills in addition to their technical skills, not to mention the incredible need for innovation and creativity.

This is a student's dream - to come up with an idea how to achieve a particular task.  If you want to max out the "Cs", this is the one - engineering at its best.  Once you sponsor a team, you will never leave as you get as hooked as the students do. Robotics Engineering was always one of my most interesting STEM classes to which I truly appreciated for its inter-disciplinary aspect.

I taught Robotics for about four years, but never sponsored a team.  I did however, take our school's team to a First Tech Challenge regional competition and was amazed at the event.  Part of me wants to get back into robotics and compete again, however, my good partner next door now has the program.  I help his team whenever I can with mentors, technical advice and of course STEM motivation....