Re: What Do You Wish You Would Have Known Your Rookie Year?
 

I hear and understand everything you are saying and support a great deal of it. If I could talk a little bit about #1 for a minute though - I'd like to open that statement up a bit. (Kind of like cracking through the shell to get to the meat of the nut.) I hear that statement a lot: 'it's not about the robot.'

I think it is. In this way: the robot provides the interest/the draw for the engineers/mentors. They bring their knowledge, experience, and education to the table. The design table, the discussion table, the mathematical table, the table strewn with cables, chain, tools, rough sketches on wood or torn bits of cardboard. They bring their humor and their passion. It is where the students are offered healthy servings of science, technology, and inspiration. I understand when people say, 'it is not about the robot', but it is. It is about the robot building teams/people as much as it is about the teams/people building the robot. That's where you get #2 and #3. And all of those together bring/create opportunities for vendors and sponsors to participate, helping to strengthen the program.:)

Sorry to sidetrack.
Jane

Re: What Do You Wish You Would Have Known Your Rookie Year?
 

Would another way of saying this be that the robot serves as the catalyst to bring mentors and students together?

Some other things I wish I had known my rookie year:

FRC is not about education. Too many times I have seen people on these boards claim the FRC is about teaching students and that teams that have mentors doing everything are not GP and should be penalized for it. These people are working off of incorrect facts, they seem to think that the goal of this program was to replace educational institutions. FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. (Emphasis mine) Nowhere in there is the word education mentioned.

On a related note, I have always felt the best way of inspiring was to push the students, show them what they are capable of doing. I would also suggest that you NEVER doubt that the kids you have can, and often do, think of more creative ideas than you. I am always in awe of what my students can do. Don't be afraid to tell them to do something on their own, support them of course but make sure they feel a sense of accomplishment, make sure they realize THEY built that robot out there.

Re: What Do You Wish You Would Have Known Your Rookie Year?
 

I wish that I had known that everything can be temporary and always will be.