[wireties]

Our ratio of mentors to students is about 1:10 and this is our best year in that regard! Last year it was just me and 2 dedicated teachers.

We leave all decisions up to the students but use persistent socratic queries when we are in significant disagreement. Over time, the mentors advice has saved the student's efforts often enough that they respect our input. Just as often students come up with innovative ideas that never crossed our minds. The synergy is good - our mentors have awesome relationships with the students on this basis.

That being said, there are some areas that must be monitored for the year-to-year survival of the team. For example, I like to review all drawings that go to our wonderful sheet metal fab sponsors. We can't be sending things out for fab that do not make sense, that are too expensive to build, that are not correct (as far as we know), that are not modeled, etc - really anything that is not totally respectful of the sponsorship. And the teachers must make sure monies are handled properly and school-related rules followed (our teachers do much more than this though!).

Ideally we'll have a 1:1 mentor:student ratio some day, that would be nice. I know my wife would appreciate it!