Why do teams voluntarily do FIRST without adult technical mentors?

[Steve W]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

But the mentors already know everything. The point is not always to get the robot done fastest, it is for you students to learn something.

Ouch, I guess that I can't be a mentor.

I am one that is not a teacher, not a student, not a parent and definitely not an engineer. I am a person that loves to figure out solutions to problems and loves the way FIRST inspires young and old people (myself included). I have spent 3 seasons with a veteran team. When I joined the team I found that the mentors did a lot of the work. Over the last 3 years there has been more and more involvement by the students. This is progress and inspiring. We work more and more as a team and the students are taking on more and more responsibilities. Will this continue? Probably not. Why you ask. Well every team goes through cycles. Every team goes through all of their students every 4 years. Every student is different. This is no different than the real world. People come and people go. What is great about FIRST is that there seems to be a lot of mentors that will only leave one way. This base group are inspiring students and mentors alike. They are there to help the greater good of FIRST. These people share their experience with others. This is where other teachers, mentors, engineers and students can get the inspiration they need to make their teams better. When this happens, all of the base mentors get inspired to do more and the cycle goes on.

I must admit that I learn as much from the students if not more than they learn from me. I hope that as time goes on that I will be able to pass my knowledge on to others more than I take.

A proper balance of mentors, engineers and students is one were they are all learning from each other, all being inspired and most important, that they are all having fun.