Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Flowerday
Nit-pick: lots of people on this thread keep talking about "learning". I'm all for the students learning through this program, but that is not a goal of FIRST (really!). If you don't believe me, please cite a specific source from FIRST that says anything about FIRST's objective being to "teach". I'm pretty sure it's not there. As others have pointed out, FIRST's material only talks about inspiration.
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This is a valid point, so I'll (respectfully) nit-pick back. In my opinion, I believe that learning and inspiration in the realm of FIRST come full circle to each other, at least during the build season.
I do believe mentors can be inspired by students just as much as the other way around. The more students learn the higher chance they'll have in inspiring their mentors and other students because there will inherently be more avenues to take on the way to doing so. I (and I don't think I'm alone here) would really love to see a student-driven idea on a bot much more than I'd like to see a mentor-based idea, even if the student's idea is mentor designed and cooperatively built. This coincides with building student self-confidence (which stems from inspiration) which leads to students trusting their own ideas and creativity. However, if the students have learned more already by having mentors teach (and/or inspire) them, then there is a much greater chance that a student-driven idea will have greater success in a bot on the competition field. Many of the interviews with Woody or Dean have stated some of these exact words, so while learning may not be an "official" cited goal of FIRST I do believe it is a goal nonetheless.
And on a more fun note... the more students know, the less likely their ideas will fight the universe or require the *poof* from a magic wand.