Quote:
Originally Posted by wevets
1. It imparts to the students that they don't have the ability to be analysts.
2. It deprives some student of a position on the drive team.
3. If, in fact, coaches/mentors have better judgement than students, it gives an unfair advantage to a team that has an adult on the drive team when other teams don't.
4. It just seems contrary to the FIRST principal that this is a competition of students, by students and for students.
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1. Our student "analyst" didn't feel left out, he was our head strategist. Our Drive Coach never gets involved with the actual strategy itself, we have a student to delegate that with other teams than he tells the drive crew what's going on. He used the opportunity to help alert the other alliances like "minibot down!" and was able to be in a calm place to study the teams on the opposing alliance (scouting never ends at regional - it's year round for those who really know what they're doing). The adult drive coach on our team acts as the overall eyes for our drivers and pays attention to the clock (it's no different than coaching little league or soccer). Also we have a very close relationship between mentors and students on the team and having their drive coach there to console them right there when the Jag exploded during Lone Star Finals was nice. I even asked them and said that we wouldn't do it if they felt something was being taken away from them and they said it didn't, it helped them.
2. He didn't feel deprived or any other student on our team. Students and Mentors work together, it's all student designed and built but it's under mentor guidance so the student can learn on to design with realistic understanding with realistic goals in the short time and small budget we're given.
3,4. FIRST isn't a competition of by students for students (I believe it was by Dean Kamen and Woodie Flowers
). It's about For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology and their mission statement. Teams will never be successful if they don't have mentors to help guide them and drive them. It should never be one or the other, it needs to be a beautiful synchronization of both worlds motivating each other and even though one is teaching the other more, I learn from my students and fall more in love with the team every day. Thus great teams like 16, Bomb Squad with the Novaks come out. If FIRST was about doing the competition without the mentors than they wouldn't have been working so hard to make sure mentors feel appreciated at the competitions and giving every mentor a certificate and pin to say thank you.
I will say this, not every team understands how to decide how much mentor involvement there should be but the teams that do understand that FIRST needs mentors and figures out that synchronization between the students and the mentors, the team comes out amazing. Look at the Hall of Fame teams, they include their mentors as part of the team, not outsiders.