First of all, I should apologize for some of the lack of clarity in my last post. I'm typing with one hand (frisbee injury) and trying to use as few words as possible but I seem to have crossed the line between concise but clear and tersely obfuscated.
Our sponsor does not mean to leave students alone, totally unsupervised, in the pits, although that probably wouldn't go as badly as some people are suggesting. He meant that he wanted to see students working on robots rather than mentors, especially during competitions and that he thought there should be a rule passed to that effect.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JaneYoung
There are certainly other competitions out there where the emphasis is student-centric with the adult mentors stepping back while at the competitions. That isn't FIRST.
|
But perhaps it should be is my point and our sponsor's.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JaneYoung
If the guests have questions, concerns and/or frustrations, the members of the team should be prepared and ready with a clear explanation of what FIRST is about and what the goals and mission of FIRST are.
|
This actually sparked a discussion with among our team/sponsor about our feelings regarding this aspect of FIRST. We all decided that we disagree with FIRST, or more specifically, CD's most common interpretation of FIRST's goals on this subject. We think students are inspired more by doing than by watching. If this weren't the case, we could just replace FIRST with the Discovery channel.
And since subtlety never seems to go over around these parts, let me make it clear that I do, in fact, think FIRST is more valuable than tv, but that I feel that way because my team was largely (basically entirely) student driven so I didn't spend my time "watching real engineers build a robot."