These past couple years Sachem Aftershock has opened up the opportunity of being on the high school robotics team to some gifted middle schoolers. Although, they can't come to competitions with us. These 7th and 8th graders learn the ropes of team 263 and find their footing within the various departments (programming, electrical, mechanical,design, business) prior to the start of their high school career. This sets them up as a leader freshman year.
However, ending there would be a discredit to these talented kids. The majority of them being programmers, when given a code these team members have exceeded our expectations, occasionally accomplishing tasks faster than our more seasoned vets. Throughout week one of build season, our middle school aged team members have played a valuable role in determining how we play the game. During team discussions, they give commentary as to how they interpret certain rules and share their ideas for possible mechanisms.
This week the team has been hard at work turning ideas from both the middle school and high school aged members into a reality. People have split into teams to build a prototype of their mechanism and bring it to the testing phase. Our construction team has also built two of our practice field elements.
