[ngreen]

Mentors are there to inspire the students in whatever way they can. If the team is unexperienced a mentor may be more of a teacher by showing the students how to do something. This was the case with our programming last year. We had a mentor who was well qualified and students who were unexperienced. If students have more confidence in a skill they complete the task while the mentor supervises. Both our chassis have been welded by students. When it comes to design decision, everyone on the team gets a vote and gets the oppurtunity to offer design ideas. In some cases the students offer an idea and mentors build off if. Sometime a mentor will have an idea and the students will make improvements to it. By all having a say in the final product it creates a sense of pride within the team. We all designed and built this. This sense is even extended to the parents. I think a good mix builds a strong team. You can build a really good robot with only students or only engineers but a mix of people creates the sense of community that is present throughout FIRST, in both these forums and the competitions.