[petek]

I would say one of the most important parts of being a mentor is helping the students do the best job they can. For me, the hardest - and most rewarding - part of the job is helping the students learn how to solve a problem without telling them how to do it or actually doing the job for them.

I do my best to stay at least one step ahead of the students in technical areas, so that I can answer their questions and teach them what I've learned. I do help them brainstorm the problems and often make suggestions, but in the end it's up to the student(s) to decide what plan to follow.

For example, when working with our design team, I would work on ways to animate assemblies, but not use the actual robot parts. Then, I can teach the student designers what I've learned, but when it comes to doing the Inventor submission, the students are the ones doing the real work. The only time I would do work on the submission itself would be to make a really tricky component or assembly constraint when there simply isn't enough time left before the deadline for the students to do it all.

To expand a little on Matt's point about getting to know the students, you need to realize that each one is an individual, with different abilities and interests, and one of your jobs is to figure out how each one can be most constructive. An example of this is some people can really dig in and immerse themselves in one job and see it through, while others may have a shorter attention span and need either smaller jobs or more supervision.