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Originally Posted by nyaculak
This is side of FIRST and FRC that I, as a student, take issue with. To me, competing in FRC wouldn't be nearly as rewarding if our mentors stepped in to fix all of our problems at the very end. Mentors should be there to guide the students and to help them refine and iterate over their designs.
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OK, Let me clear up what I said:
I did not say mentors should step in and fix ALL the problems. My statement was that there is a difficult decision as to what is more inspiring; letting the kids struggle and (hopefully!) fix the issue, or to step in and HELP fix the issue and have a fully functioning robot.
To me, a running robot, showing off that the design ideas of the students can work, is usually more inspiring than a dead robot on the field (or worse a no show because they are trying to fix it).
Quote:
Originally Posted by nyaculak
My team has a very relaxed view on mentoring. In general, the less the mentors help us with the robot, the better. It's always helpful to hear their insight on our ideas, but we really strive to make our robot as student-built as possible. Of course, we don't always have the best robot at competition, which leads me to my next point.
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Then you are missing a big part of FIRST, which is the partnership and interaction between mentor and student.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nyaculak
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?
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FIRST is about INSPIRATION, not the ROBOT. How a team is inspired is not relevant. Whether you would be inspired by their method of inspiration is, also, not relevant (unless you are on that team). Whether someone is inspired by watching a real engineer ply his trade, or by putting his own hands on a project is a very personal thing, and one that the mentor has to be acutely cognizant of (and most are).
Inspiration comes in many forms, and what inspires one may not inspire another ... and learning that will make you a better mentor in the future.