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Re: Mentors as Drive Coaches?
I want to pick up on something Richard said earlier in this thread: drive team is definately NOT the be-all-end-all of the FIRST experience. We have had many students come to us with one purpose: to drive the robot. Some, when they realize that this will not happen immediately for them, leave us. Others stick around. Some of those end up on the drive team; others, for whatever reason, do not. This does not make their FIRST experience less, valuable, or less memorable, for them.
Two of our students in particular come to mind. One was on the drive team his sophomore year as a human player, but was not selected for the drive team his junior year. Although initially disappointed, he agreed to be part of our Chairmain's committee, working on both the written and oral presentations. I will never forget the elation he showed after our team's oral presentation. He came flying down the escalators, he and the other presenters felt that they had done so well. I asked him if that experience was on par with the feeling he got on the drive team, and he said unequivocally that it was. And when we ended up winning Engineering Inspiration, he knew that it was partly due to the impact they had made on the judging panel.
This year, we had a student come to us with the primary purpose of being on the drive team and/or pit crew. Instead, he ended up on our scouting team. Instead of leaving the team or bemoaning his role, he embraced it and ended up to be our lead scout, working closely with not only our scouting crew but with the other team we agreed to co-scout with. He enjoyed himself immensely, learned so much about the game and strategy, and made many new friends from our scouting partners. Not only that, his willingness to serve the team's needs bodes well for him being rewarded in the future by getting one of the roles he so desires.
Finally, we are one of the teams who uses a mentor coach. We are also, however, one of the teams who believes strongly that the students do a large percentage of the work building and repairing the robot. In our pit, students work alongside the mentors. It's the same on the field. We tried having a student drive coach; it just didn't work for us. This year I feel that we had the optimal situation; a drive coach who had been a FIRST student for four years in high school and a mentor for his four years of college. Being a little closer to the students age, he related to them extremely well and knew how to help them strategize without completely taking over. He was also excellent at keeping them loose on the field and having fun with them. It worked well for us this year, and I don't see that changing any time in the future for us.
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Denise Smoker, Mentor, Team #558, Elm City RoboSquad
Finalist, N.E. District Championshp 2014 (thanks 195 and 5122)
Judge's Award, N.E. District Championship 2014
Winner, Hartford District Event 2014 (thanks 177 and 5129)
Chairman's Award, Southington District Event 2014
Winners, Southington District Event 2014 (thanks 195 and 999)
Creativity Award, WPI Regional 2013
Finalist, CT Regional 2012 (thanks 1071 and 2067)
Engineering Inspiration Award, CT Regional 2010
Judge's Award, CT Regional 2009
Johnson & Johnson Gracious Professionalism Award, CT Regional 2008
Woodie Flowers Award (mentor Ernie Smoker), CT Regional 2008
Winner, CT Regional 2007 (thanks 195 & 1124)
Daimler-Chrysler Team Spirit Award, CT Regional 2007
Finalist, CT Regional 2006 (thanks 181 & 356)
Imagery Award, CT Regional 2005
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