[KathieK]

I mentor Team 173's CA committee. For the last two years our submission has been student-written and the presentation student-given. There's no "right or wrong" way to do this, just as there's no ruling about engineers designing and building the robot. I proofread (as do several other people), give suggestions, and coach the students on giving presentations.

I feel that writing the CA submission and learning presentation skills are critical skills that you will need in college and/or the workplace, so it's a good opportunity to test them out.

One of the things that bothers me about the CA process is that there is an emphasis on the submission/presentation that encourages teams to seek professional help in creating them, yet there is no set of rules for judging; it's all very subjective. I would prefer that the emphasis is based on what the team has accomplished, and not how it is reported.