Quote:
Originally posted by Martin
FIRST:
From what I see, alot of teams don't have too much of a student imput in them.
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Martin,
Firstly, your passion is admirable and your opinion is welcome.
But.. you gotta understand that every single team in FIRST is different. There are teams where students don't hardly touch the robot, and there are teams where adults don't touch the robot. Both are not illegal.
However, both are not the best situation, in my opinion. Ideally, the best situation is where students are empowered to do as much as they can do while still being inspired by their mentors. This situation happens frequently on many, many teams nationwide.
You say that alot of teams don't have much student input...
If what you have been seeing are teams at competitions with only the engineers doing any of the work... then I agree with you, partly. Students should be doing the work, but right along the side of a mentor (if the student needs the help). If you say that students don't have much input by simply looking at robot pictures (which is about all we all can do up to this point), then you are very wrong. Many teams who have high levels of student involvement can make a robot look very professionally built. Some teams work very hard at making a machine which looks like a pro built it. You will be suprised.
The team I'm on has been doing this FIRST thing for 11 years. For the first 2-3 years, the robot was built entirely by adults. Over the years, this has turned a 180. Our robot is built by students and adults (engineers, parents, teachers) who work side by side. Some years, our team's robot has higher levels of student involvement in the design and fabrication of parts and subassemblies, depending on the skill level and experience of the students.
My advice to you at this time would be this: Don't assume that a robot wasn't built by students. Also, don't dig yourself a hole by bashing a team which has different theories of how their team works... you may want them as an alliance partner.
Sincerely,
Andy B.