Mentors on the team

[wireties]

Originally Posted by jason701802

And what does that teach anyone? The teams that have the best performing robots are not necessarily the ones that do the most inspiration. Some of the most inspired (not excited) kids I have talked to are the ones that are on predominately student teams.

Jason - I hate to beat a dead horse in this thread. But you have made extraordinary claims and I have to ask: How many students did you talk to? How did you assess the % of student involvement on each student's team? How many students per team did you sample? Were these students first, second, third or fourth year? How did you gauge the student level of excitement? Did you record any of the observations? (not to reveal here but to make sure your year over year data was consistent) Did you query the correlating mentors?

Do you see what I'm getting at? One can't just make believable claims w/o supporting data. it just does not ring true.

Originally Posted by jason701802

I agree that the answer to all of these is no. I think it is only okay for a mentor to work on the robot if every student is busy and every interested student knows how to do the task in question. By definition, a mentor is a counselor or teacher, not a doer.

From the dictionary - a wise or trusted adviser or guide - One wants their "guides" to show them how to do things. One wants wise, trusted advisors to be "doers" if the advisor thinks it best.

Originally Posted by jason701802

They can pass on a lot of knowledge, give guidelines for design, show and explain examples of good and bad designs, and offer critiques...

Agreed - but how is this not playing an active role? You state one principle then gives examples of something very different.

Another thing - the term "mentor", as used in FRC, is not strictly the one from the dictionary. Your definition is far from complete. FRC teams are meant to resemble real-world engineering organizations where mentors are muuuuuch more than teachers or counselors. In a professional context, mentors are held responsible for the progress and success of a novice. It is a much more formal and collaborative role.