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Unread 25-02-2014, 17:50
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wireties wireties is offline
Principal Engineer
AKA: Keith Buchanan
FRC #1296 (Full Metal Jackets)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Rookie Year: 2004
Location: Rockwall, TX
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Re: Problems with overbearing mentors

Quote:
Originally Posted by nyaculak View Post
When mentors "step in" to fix their team's robot, I really think they should consider what this does to the teams that don't have their mentors complete (or, in some cases, build) their robots. FIRST is for the INSPIRATION of science and technology, right? How inspiring is it when high school students are left to compete with a robot built by a team of actual engineers?
How do the mentors teach the students how to fix the robot? Leaving an energetic group of smart students to suffer (only because of their lack of education and experience) seems cruel. And if the students don't learn how to diagnose and fix problems with the robot during build season how can they fix the robot at competition?

Perhaps something like a 2-hour rule is appropriate? During build season, students spend a fixed amount of time on a single problem then they ask for help. Then what is learned in the build season is leveraged at the competitions.

How inspiring is it when high school students are left to compete with a robot that does not work?
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