Quote:
Originally Posted by RRLedford
I personally feel the the very short time window of the build season of FRC seriously undermines the level of good mentoring that I can accomplish with my team, and forces me to be doing way to many things that I would rather have them be doing, but time simply does not allow that.
-Dick Ledford
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I agree completely. It seems we're in the same boat. Student acquisition of skills takes a LOT of time. We started pre-season prep in the summer, and it still isn't enough. In the build season, the competitive teams that will win this are not doing hardly anything new. They are already experts, and are simply repeating things they have done in the past. They innovate in the offseason, and apply minor tweaks during build season. If you're trying much of anything new starting in January, you have already lost the game.
This build season has been particularly tough. Already, I have over 230 hours into it personally. As a team, we have over 3000 people-hours into it total so far.
There are plenty of things I wish I could take the time to show students how to do for the first time, but the harsh reality is that if I did, it would be February 19th and we wouldn't have anything close to resembling a robot sitting here (we still may not anyhow!). Sometimes one has to consider the greater good. Whch is better: students involved in every step an the robot is a terrible failure, or a reasonable dose of mentor involvement and the kids have something adequately field-able? While it's not about the robots, a terrible robot can ruin any team's morale. I refuse to allow it to happen here. Failure is not an option.
In my opinion, a team needs to best utilize ALL of its people. If an adult has knowledge or skills or abilities that can benefit the team as a whole, it's doing the team a disservice to hold that back.
While currently I may do too much work for my students, they are all aware of my goal to be sitting back in a La-Z Boy recliner with my feet up on my desk and a cool beverage in my hand within the next 5 years, and several students are making progress toward helping me achieve that goal.
(This is a fictional goal by the way. I don't think I'll ever be a hands-off mentor. It's just not my style).