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Unread 14-12-2007, 19:33
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GaryVoshol GaryVoshol is offline
Cogito ergo arbitro
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Re: Corporations Build Robots

This topic comes up from time to time. Many who have a background in FLL, where the creed is "the kids do the work", have problems with teams with a lot of adult design and construction.

Still, I doubt anyone has ever seen either of these teams:

In Team A, the mentors drop the KOP boxes on the worktable and say, "There you go, have at it. Let's see what you can build."

In Team B, a group of mentors absconds with all the motors and other proprietary parts, secludes themselves in a locked room, and 4 weeks later they unveil the shining new monster.

Real teams are somewhere between those extremes. What works for a team in the past may be changed in the future. Depending on the particular strengths of the students and the engineering mentors, the pendulum may sway toward one or the other extreme, but will never max out or stay in one place. Neither Team A nor Team B will be particularly successful in inspiring students to succeed. Success in inspiration and in learning comes from cooperation and interaction between mentor and mentee. Each team must discover the dynamics of that interaction for themselves, to see what works.

I am happy as a parent that my daughter is involved with mentors who want the students to do a lot of the work, and want them actively involved in the design process. Yet they had me work on the bumpers, and I did most of the cutting and much of the fabrication. You know what? Cutting and filing several dozen 45* cuts on angle aluminum was pretty boring. I didn't learn much except how hot pieces could get. What did I take away from any student that already knew how to use a chop-saw? Nothing. When it came time to assemble, I had a student or two working with me to hold the material and operate the staple gun. Nothing big there either - but the students knew how the bumpers were constructed, and could describe it properly if asked by an inspector. Mission accomplished. The same process is repeated over and over as mentors and students work together to design, build and program all the marvelous parts of the machines that come to the competitions.

As I was typing this, I looked up at the top of the screen and saw a highlight from Karthik.
Quote:
Remember, there are many differents path to obtaining knowledge. There's no need to pigeonhole the process.
How appropriate. It was from 2004. I think I'll go rep him just on principle.
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