Quote:
Originally Posted by 4throck
It seems that many people are completely misunderstanding the "black magic" analogy that Kelly and Rachel have brought up. Perhaps this will clear it up.
The idea is something like this. Most people's conception of engineering is that an engineer goes into a room for a while, produces blueprints through black magic, which then [black] magically get turned into some really useful/cool technology. People understand that this happens, and they might even have a good idea of how it happens. You can watch a TV special on, say, the Manhattan Project, and look at every single step that they took when designing what they were working on. This would be roughly analogous to students watching a mentor designed and built robot. What would be more useful (and inspiring, perhaps), would be for the students to do it themselves. There is a big gap between watching someone else go through the process and doing it yourself. When the intellectual and technological burden is on you, and you are able to make a functioning and overall decent (at least) robot, you can see the engineering process as a whole, and, what's more, come out with the knowledge and confidence that you can do this, that you can solve the problem and work from there.
If that ain't inspiration, then I don't know what is.
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Well good for you. Have you ever considered that there is a viable middle ground to what you're suggesting? That that middle ground is actually what happens on most FIRST teams? Mentors and students work TOGETHER to design and build a robot. I'm pretty sure there are approximately 0 teams out there who do what you're suggesting - have students sit there and watch while the mentors do everything. I don't understand who you're accusing here, because there isn't anyone out there doing what you say is so bad. Sure, some teams have mentors in the pits - as other people have pointed out, you have no idea what's going on there. Ever heard the expression "don't judge a book by its cover??"
Inspiration can come about in a multitude of ways. I'm glad you were inspired. Just because you think your way works doesn't mean you can say other ways don't. Have you ever been on a team that you think mentors do all the work and don't inspire their students? I have experienced being on a team that has completely student designed and built robot, and working hand in hand with engineering mentors to design and build a robot as a student. Both inspire. In my opinion, I was infinitely more inspired by working alongside industry professionals to design and build a robot - having them share their ideas with us, us share their ideas with them and having help working through those ideas. But maybe that's just me. There is a big gap between seeing someone do something and doing it yourself - but there is also a big gap between being guided and helped along by a professional in the field and doing it yourself.