Quote:
Originally Posted by Kusha
Obviously if students are being inspired then they are going to want to help design and build instead of watching. Watching someone build something leaves something to be desired.
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Having been a student and now a mentor I totally agree. I got started in FRC when I was in 7th grade and about as "useful" as a wet pool noodle. I was very involved for the next six years, and as you can imagine got considerably more useful as I got older. During this time I got to interact with a wide variety of mentors with a wide variety of styles.
I did not mentor a team in college (although I would occasionally drop in on 2791). IMO, this was a critical piece of the puzzle for me. I was never in that awkward phase that is somewhere between student and mentor. I was very clearly a student, and now am a mentor. (Which may scare me, but...)
I do not think there are any adults (or at least exceedingly few) in this program that would intentionally block-out students. It is most likely that they just don't remember when they didn't know how to do something, and are unsure of how to involve students. Or maybe they feel the clock breathing down their backs, and they want to make sure that the team fields a working robot. Or, you get a bunch of technical experts in a room they start going at it without them even realizing that they are excluding everyone else. (eventually you have to fire the engineers and just build the darn thing)
What I consider one my greatest mentoring strengths is I remember when I was a student in varying degrees from "completely useless" to "Mr. Mentor is here for insurance reasons" And I try really hard to hand out tasks that fit where kids are today AND give them an opportunity to grow in the future. And I think the people that stick with this program think along those lines, but sometimes people who are in their first season or two haven't figured that out yet.
For example, freshman and sophomores generally have a really hard time drilling a perpendicular hole with a DeWalt drill. I am not sure what the scientific reason for this is, but I know I was also totally incapable of drilling a perpendicular hole for a long time, so you either have them use a drill press or have someone else sight the drill (and continue moving it back straight when they drift off!) To continue the example you may have to drill a particularly difficult hole during week 1, show someone how to adjust the clutch on a cordless drill in week 3, and just ask someone to mount a reinforcement brace on the robot in the pit.
This thread has some really great insights into
Doing / Showing / Asking from people much smarter than I.
