Quote:
Originally Posted by waialua359
Every uncomfortable situation has 2 sides to a story.
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There are ways to cheat, and there are ways to cheat.
Not bagging on stop build day is a clear violation. Bagging the robot, and continuing to work on a component within the hold back limitation is fine. Kids who do not understand that rule sometimes think the team is cheating. We build a 2nd robot for that explicit purpose. Continuing to refine the design after stop build, and bring the new component (within the hold back allowance) to the competition.
In the grand scheme of things, for a well performing team, there is limited value of not bagging on time vs. continuing to work on the hold back. For a rookie team that doesn't even have a functioning robot, the cheating could be huge. For the rookie team, I can see "looking the other way" so that they can compete. Rookie teams tend not to do very well, so the giving them a handicap advantage is not so bad.
Then there is cheating. The competition is for the students to learn. A mentor built robot, while not technically "cheating", takes away from the experience for the kids. The mentors need to remember "gracious professionalism", and take a step back for the benefit of the students.