Mentor/Student Involvement Philosophies

[Seth Mallory]

Each team is different since the depending on the goals that the team sets for the students and the resources the team has. The following is a small listing of what is many items.

Goals for example could be to inspire, win, teach or any combination of what they want. Also in teaching what do you want to teach.

Resources include mentors, money, facilities, training time, students.

Mentors. This means how many, skill level, mindset (inspire, win, teach).
Money. How much and does it have strings.
Facilities. What tools, space, storage, or access to sponsor's facilities.
Training time. Does the team form before build and have no time to train, Is it an after school team and gets some training in the fall. Do they have a class and train year around.
Students. Is the team struggling to get members or is it more popular then the football team. Do you have students that can train the rookies in correct use of the tools and teach them how to design and build.

Now you take all of the above and much more and you make a team and that is is why there are so many different types of teams. This is why I try to not judge other teams on their program. A good robot does not mean a good program and a bad robot does not mean a bad program. If the team meets the goals set out for the students then it is a good program.