I vote dedicated students is 70%, good mentors is 15%, and the other 15% percent is somewhat equally distributed to the rest.
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Originally Posted by SuburBot
I bet that the majority of people who didn't answer students are involved with a team that already has good students. If you were on a team without them, you might vote differently.
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As part of team where there was a dedication shift in students, I can vouch that the results are tangible.
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Originally Posted by Garret
Without mentors a team will end up like mine. having literally no continuity between seasons, essentially being a rookie every season.
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Yes. This is a big reason that good mentors are still important but...
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Mentors are also what guide the students. Even if the students build the robots completely, they need a mentor to show them how to make a robot or do anything. You simply cannot learn what is never taught.
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Originally Posted by Robby Unruh
Experienced Mentors, hands down... whether they admit or not, all FRC teams would be nowhere without 'em.
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Originally Posted by Garret
I will still say, that a student can only be as good as what they have been taught. (Most) Students cannot design, build, program, and test a robot just using what they are taught in school.
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This is why I disagree with the "experienced mentors" being the biggest contributor (as well as facilities): 1625
Now, I hope they don't mind me using them as an example: but they don't have a fancy shop, and their head mentors aren't engineers. One is an architect and the other works with special ed students. I think they have maybe one or two engineers associated with their team but I know that they don't come to meetings frequently.
And they win. They win regional champ titles
and chairmans. How, might you ask?
Dedicated students. I know that those kids are in their shop throughout the year. When experienced students leave the team, younger students are trained to become robot-experts (okay, so this is Aren Hill's doing and he's technically a mentor, but still...). These kids are working hard all the time to be the best they can be. They don't have any mentors who have been in the program longer than the team itself and even in their baby years, they were still winning regionals.
And when kids on my team got dedicated, things happened. Good things happened. The year with the most mentor-input (to my knowledge) was possibly one our worst (no offense, mentors... I love you!). This year, most of our students did a 180 and all of a sudden we had a robot built and working BEFORE ship. Who'da'thunk!
Dedicated Students is the biggest piece. You need (a) coherent mentor(s) from year to year that holds things together, but if you have your students going then you have good things happening.