[JesseK]

I agree with the "no adults" policy of FLL and FTC. Those programs have kits and are restricted enough that students should be able to put the puzzle together themselves with limited mentor support.

The thing about FRC is that teams that are all students all the time with mentor support from the sidelines really don't know what they're missing. There's a whole world of processes, design and materials that industry mentors can bring to the table if they're proactive. Having that experience gemoetrically accelerates college learning past what it would have been without the experience. This doesn't mean that mentors build everything; it simply means that excluding and restricting them closes the doors to the opportunity of being inspired or taught in a way you didn't know you could be inspired or taught.

It's like running on dial-up after you've already experienced 40Mbps fiber optics. If you'd never upgraded to begin with, you wouldn't understand the hype. Yet once you understand the fundamental improvements by switching and all of the new opportunities you never would have had on dial-up, you'll never want to go back.