Chief Delphi - Mentor/Student Involvement Philosophies

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Re: Mentor/Student Involvement Philosophies

Our team is a student led club in which the veteran members pass down their knowledge to the newcomers. The experienced members teach the rookies what they have learned and may seek the mentors assistance on topics beyond their expertise. The goal of our team is for the students to be actively involved while mentors give their guidance.

Re: Mentor/Student Involvement Philosophies

Joe, I agree completely with your philosophy. IMHO, FIRST robotics is such an immersive experience that almost any aspect and any element can be a "teachable moment" that will inspire the students to learn more.

I was very interested in your Sheet Metal experience. Does your team have any material you can share, such as design guidelines, library of parts you have made, or training material? Our team has access to our own "manual" sheet metal equipment, but I would like to know your views on what you can do with CNC vs manual shop.

Avrum Goldman
Lead Mentor
Team 3979 Solaris

Re: Mentor/Student Involvement Philosophies

Quote:

Originally Posted by Avrum Goldman (Post 1483982)

Sent you a PM, if there's enough general interest I could get my team to put together a whitepaper on good sheet metal practice. A thread necro with a title like this is a dangerous thing...

Re: Team 254 Presents: CheesyVision

Quote:

Originally Posted by magnets (Post 1441575)

FRC: FIRST Robotics Competition.

It's a competition. There is no rule that says we cannot have a team of 300 of the brightest engineers build our robot for us. Team 254 inspires students by winning and being better than 99% of everybody else. That's their call to make, and not ours to discuss or criticize.

Exactly. Every team has a different philosophy on how mentors should be involved; trying to get every team in FRC to utilize their mentors in roughly the same way (or to eliminate some kinds of mentor involvement) is futile. What matters is if the students are being inspired, and winning is pretty inspiring.
Admittedly, I am a strong believer that most design and strategic decisions should be made by the students. However, why underutilize brilliant mentors when they can contribute so much? Why not take advantage of the unique skills offered by mentors experienced in their field? I learned to use PCB design software this year after a mentor designed a circuit for a custom Talon SRX expansion board. Was it mentor-deisgned? Yes. Did a student learn something new? Yes. Mentor involvement in design, and student inspiration aren't mutually exclusive.