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Originally Posted by Not2B
But I do wonder about a team when I see 3 engineers fixing a broken robot in the pits with NO (zero) students even in range. How can that be good? (I'm serious - is that good? A working, dominating robot makes the team feel good or what?)
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See this goes against what you said earlier... about judging how their students are inspired. And this is one brief second that you see a team in their pits. I can remember a handful or more times where this was the case in our pits. In general, it was the mentors just testing something out, or tweaking something. Why, do you ask, were there no students in range?? Well, lets see, our starving drive team was off getting food, half our kids were scouting, others were off getting buttons or checking out other teams... etc etc... sometimes, the mentors step in to let the kids go have fun. The competition is about MUCH more than just the robot. If kids are glued to the robot all of the time, then they miss the rest of it... the other fun stuff, what makes FIRST, FIRST.
And to back up the argument, there are a lot of very tiny teams, and with resources spread thin, sometimes its up to the mentors to make the tweaks.
That said, I remember all the important stuff being done by our students... I dont think a single mentor could tell you how the transmission was assembled, but two of our students could! When we had emergency drive train changes, tightening of the chains, changing of axles, the mentors threw up their hands and claimed ignorance as our students took over.
(This is general now, not to Not2B)
Complain if there is a mentor on your team who bullies you out of the way, complain if a mentor on another team is mean to you, but dont judge how other teams work by what you see in the pits, or what you "hear" from other teams. With anticipation high, struggles for recognition, different views on inspiration, there are a lot of accusations and assumptions. But teams that keep coming back are the ones that are actually inspiring students... so teams that are still around are doing something right.. regardless of
student or mentor
built bots.