Mentors Work

[DonRotolo]

Let's just PLEASE avoid the "mentor vs student" debate. All teams do what is best for them, everything from mentor built to student built. No further comments please.

On 1676, the mentors are primarily advisors and facilitators. We also make sure everything is safe and kids know how to use tools properly.

Facilitation is when we lead and focus a discussion without contributing to it, mostly reflecting and rephrasing student comments. We provide the structure, not the content.

As advisors, we spend a lot of time looking over shoulders, as students make decisions and fabricate items. I'll throw in my 2 cents just as any student might, and my kids know that my opinion doesn't carry any more weight than a freshman's - unless I say that "I insist". I use that phrase sparingly, but I (and other mentors) will step in when something is definitely unsafe, unproductive or unworkable.

We let students fail, so they learn. But not to the point of not being able to compete. For example, last year the Digital Sidecar was put in a location that I said was not optimal, but they did it anyway, and I let them. During competition, when they had to fool with connections, they learned the hard way why you don't bury it under other hardware and obstruct sight lines. They didn't make that error this year, and passed along this tribal knowledge to the next generation.

The mentors all agree that our job is to make ourselves unnecessary. It's not as much fun, but we get to sit down a lot.