[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Brandon Holley

I think you've obviously figured out that it will require all 3 to be an effective mentor at some point. I think a lot of it for me is gauging the situation and recognizing when it is necessary to escalate through those 3 types of mentorship. I say escalate because I think ideally you'd like to just ask and let them run with it, but to get the most out of the program, you are going to have to be taught how to do something, sometimes inception won't work.

I try to avoid doing whenever possible, but realistically it will happen. Some examples that I tend to do somewhat often are getting things apart/together, removing press fits, fixing a broken tool/machine or fixing a broken CAD. Rarely however are these done in a strictly "doing" mentality. Its usually more of a directed showing. Not necessarily breaking down each step, but letting the student watch what I do and hopefully they pick it up after a few viewings.

It takes a while to really feel it out and determine what the best course of action is. I'm sure its different for FTC, FVC, FLL, FRC or whatever other activity you may be doing as well.

My key piece of advice is to just sit back and observe while asking directed questions until you feel things are stalling. If the project is slowing down, try to push it over the hump by jumping in here and there.

-Brando

My big concern is that they have a competition Saturday and I don't want to see them get discouraged.