At what point does it become unacceptable for a mentor to design/build the robot

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Kusha

they don't take into consideration or even test students ideas.

Students should be testing their own ideas, not handing them off to mentors.

For some teams, the mentors need to be very involved. For other teams, they almost don't have mentors. Most teams lie between those two extremes, and as long as everyone is OK, it is OK. When someone doesn't like it, they need to change it democratically.

So in our hypothetical team where some students felt their ideas were being ignored, first advise the mentors of those feelings, and try to see how it can be addressed.

Students need to understand that mentors are unlikely to take any cockamamie ideas that students throw at them and make them work - that takes way too much effort. Instead, the student has an idea, they get reasonable resources to develop and test it, with the mentors offering verbal advice when a roadblock is hit.

I had a student approach me with an idea for lifting up frisbees, and I quote "well, the frisbees get in here somehow and are lifted up somehow and pop into some kind of hopper." Great idea, but still needs some more effort, because a 5 year old could've come to that conclusion. The devil is in the details - come back with a working prototype and we can talk.

No J.W., I am not referring to you.