Background – I helped form a FLL team out of our middle school last year with a small group of students.  Based on the success of that venture, we decided to open up the school club to others.  While we were a little concerned with what the response might be, we ended up with a group of around 18. 

While we already re-registered the team from last year, we apparently waited a few hours too long to try and register a 2^nd team, leaving us with just one team for this year.

While only having one team is a little disappointing, I still believe we can keep all of the kids involved in the process.  The club will continue to meet during the course of the year, albeit less frequently, to continue to use Lego Robotics to learn new things, so in that vein, I think we can keep everyone excited and involved even if they won’t be able to actually participate in the tournament in November.

The question, though, is how to select which kids “make the team.”  I’ve been considering that the club should want to do the best that it can, so letting the kids themselves vote for who goes has some merit, but I don’t want it to become a popularity contest, either.  I’m also a little concerned with making sure all 18 aren’t acting a single team as this wouldn’t be fair, but I think once the core team is established, creating related activities for the rest as a rehearsal for next year shouldn’t be that difficult.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be most helpful!

Thanks,

--Tom