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Originally Posted by Alan Anderson
I think you might be misunderstanding the difference between inspiration and learning. In order to "change the culture" we don't necessarily need to show people how to do something. We just need to show what is possible with the right training and study. That training and study is not all going to happen within the time constraints of an FRC season, but the relatively brief bits of inspiration can easily influence the rest of a student's educational career.
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I think you're missing part of my earlier point. If we wanted to show students what professional engineers can accomplish, it would be a lot cheaper for teachers to just stick a NOVA special on the Apollo program in the VCR and pop out for a coffee. Programs like FIRST deserve to exist because they show students that THEY can become engineers and build cool things. Science has a bit of a stigma in our society and kids think they need to be super-geniuses to excel in it and programs like FIRST can dispel that myth.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan Anderson
If you want to focus on a "kids can do it for themselves" environment, I think you're going to miss out on a big part of the experience of having engineering mentors as part of the team. High school students should not be expected to have the same skill sets as professional engineers who have had years more of study, learning, and practice in the relevant fields. The same goes for machining, programming, team-building, fundraising, networking, recruiting, strategic planning, etc.
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To quote myself: "Build season is another story, that's when general engineering experience comes in handy, but at competitions it's all about knowing your machine." Mentors are wonderful during the build season and
I'm not proposing we eliminate them from FIRST entirely. I just think students should have a large enough role on the team that they can capably work on it in the pits.