Quote:
Originally Posted by SousVide
no disrespect intented.
But That can't be still correct today, could it?..... Look at what he did right after that...
... At the end of the day, what is quoted might be what is meant then, but I cannot understand how it could be true today. It defeats the purpose of having the students *do*...
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I totally disagree. Dean certainly doesn't need me to defend his words, so I will just say I've heard him say similar things in the last couple of years, so I think he still believes what he said in 1998.
From my perspective, regarding the role of mentors on a team - this just isn't for "kids" this is for "future STEM professionals. This is the best STEM curriculum in the world, wrapped up in the form of entertainment and competition. If they are not learning and not being inspired, then it certainly doesn't meet the goals of FIRST. How that is done, however, is dependent on the "market" where this is practiced. There can be instances where telling students to do it all themselves could be totally uninspiring, leading to total frustration, and causing them to quit. Likewise, having them sit on the sidelines, and not get a chance to be involved can also sour them on the whole experience. What works for one team, in their community, may not work for another.
In my workplace, I manage a team of education professionals. They have all gone to college, some with advanced degrees, some with experience at other organizations - but when they join our company, they are assigned a Mentor for their first two years. At the beginning, they get to only observe the training events that our company provides, then a chance to teach more and more, finally they are allowed to "go solo." Some need all 2 years to get up to speed, others, perhaps half that. The mentors are there to make sure they have the skills they need to be successful in our organization. The mentors in our company want the new employees to be successful as quickly as possible, so they can contribute to our overall success.
The same is true on our FRC team. We mentor them, so that hopefully they have the skills to be successful STEM professionals. Our FRC team is probably a 60/40 split between students and mentors. If a mentor is doing something, it with as much assistance as a student can give. If the student can do the job, the mentor is there to observe and advise. On our FTC teams, it is probably a 90/10 student to mentor split and FLL is then 100/0 split. But each level has its own goals and its own focus. FLL is not FRC for really short people, and FRC is not giant legos. The different levels of FIRST meet the kids where they are, with what they can do, and at what level of development they are in. They should be viewed as a part of progressive journey, where the goal is to grow the best STEM professionals we can.
On our team, the robot and the competition is a bonus - the learning is the key. How that works, is up to each team to decide, and that may change from year to year.