[KenWittlief]

I have found over the (seven) years that you need to start out with new students, with the mentors doing everything, showing how its all done - and at whatever level they can most students will pickup on what you are doing quickly, and you can then step back and let them finish

this is true for all the subsystems, mechanical, electrical wiring, writing the SW, the pneumatics

there will always be some things that mentors need to step in and check, or fix (for some reason last year most of our students were afraid to tighten screws and bolts up like they needed to be, and we were constantly finding loose fasteners)

its a balance that you have to re-discover with your team every year.

Just remember the #1 rule for mentors "Dont let your team fail - dont let them show up with a bot that wont pass inspection or wont run - even if you have to spend the last 4 days before shipping there to make it happen".

there is no penalty for having the adults build the whole machine, and letting the students just watch - in fact, I know of one team several years ago where one adult built the WHOLE robot behind closed doors, then handed it over to the students a few days before the ship date

and there are also teams where the adults never touch the bot at all, and the students do everything - most teams are somewhere in the middle.