[Kims Robot]

I think the highest number of students has to have some sort of relation to the number of mentors. No matter how many tasks you have, it still takes a certain number of mentors to help students in order to get things done.

To a certain extent a 4 or 5 to one ratio of students to consistent mentors is probably reasonably ideal. The reason I throw the word consistent in there is because every team has those mentors that are only able to make it a day a week or here & there. It is very difficult to manage and help more than 4 or 5 students at a time, especially if they are doing different tasks.

As an example 1511 has ~25 mentors (I know - lucky!), but I would say come build season really only 10 to 15 of those are "consistent" And with the team working 5-6 days a week, that means the team probably should have a high of 50-75 students. Their highest has been somewhere around 45, so they can still support more, especially in the areas outside the robot.

However, it can be a tough balance. This year they have 18 students that joined the programming subteam!! If all 18 decide they want to do programming in build season, its going to be more than difficult to manage, especially since the only have 2-3 mentors.

I personally would love to see 1511 hit a sustainable 60ish students, but so far, while they usually start with a list that long, between grades and lower interest, its usually down to 40ish by the time build season comes.