[mousa]

Are you sure they want robotics rather than pure software? For the longest time I was really put off of programming because of all the libraries and magic going on and people trying to show me the "cool stuff." It was cool stuff but I could never really get into it because I never felt I had a good feel of what was going on and there were so many components involved. I think if I was introduced to competitive programming earlier I would have loved it. Nothing messy to think about but the problems themselves and some kids might be motivated by the competition or puzzleness of it.