engineer bots

[Lux]

All the points made about inspiration and assistance from mentors being important are certainly true.

However, having been a student and college mentor with three different teams with varying degrees of mentor involvement vs. student involvement when it comes to designing and building the robot, I've noticed that students learn the most when they are ones doing the designing and building. On team 53, the students are the ones coming up with designs, building the robot, doing the programming, and performing the administrative tasks. Of course there are parents and mentors for guidance and suggestions, but really the students are the ones getting it done, and it's really impressive. They have learned some of the basic fundamentals of engineering design, have some machining and technical experience, and most importantly have a realistic sense of the engineering process (i.e. oh my god, it doesn't work, what do I do now?!). These are all extremely helpful skills for college and working.

So if you are a powerhouse team and being inspired and learning about engineering, that's pretty cool. And if you're a small team where your students are doing most of the work but not necessarily winning competitions, you get your due when you head off to college or the workforce with skills that your peers may not have developed and experiences that your peers may not have had.

Either way, FIRST works. You just have to keep the big picture in mind.