[nitneylion452]

Originally Posted by 372 lives on

YESSS...



it looks to me most people who post in this thread are on teams with plenty of mentor help. So i will post a perspective of the opposite.
my team has a few vary capable mentors who have been doing first since pre-2000 since I have been here we only have mentors helping us for one or two days a weeks leaving us alone, except the school adviser, for the other four days. the mentors will normally help teach how to use tools and basic stuff; they will not touch the robot unless we need a custom part that we cant make ourselves(our school only has a small wood/welding shop with limited equipment). I find this method does work well for people on the team to INSPIRE stem but unless you are super committed it is difficult for people to find there place on the team (we have averaged less than 15 members for the last 5 years.). Our robot designs are usually rather effective and able to compete with the "'"best"'" teams. members of our team have learned far more than members of the local mentor heavy teams(yes I know this for a fact).
so from what i have seen more mentor help will inspire more people, but less mentor help will inspire people more.



P.S.


I have seen teams where mentors do all the work there isn't as many as some people think but there definitely are some out there.

My team is in it's 3rd season. Year 1, we had 1 capable mentor. Year 2, we had 2. This year, we still have 2 (I'm not including myself as a capable mentor as I only graduated last year. I help with smaller tasks that involve hand tools and such.) I have the same opinion as the majority of the people who have posted on this thread.

EDIT: We also have some parents and teachers who help, but I was limiting the scope to engineering mentors with careers in the field.