Student Initiative

[laurenlacy]

Originally Posted by 4throck

Regular beatings. We beat them constantly.

But in all seriousness, the best way to foster student initiative is to have a completely student built/designed robot. ...

Of course, the problem with this method is that your robot MAY not be as good as if the mentors did everything. Naturally, the students will make stupid mistakes that could have easily been gotten around, or make mistakes due to inexperience. Hopefully though, the new leadership knows enough to do well anyway. If not, remember that students still get a lot out of a robot that is a complete and utter failure. Trust me on this one.

haha 4throck I think I've responded to you twice today...

Anyway I agree with you entirely. Our robots have been very student built and engineered, and with that has come great initiative. I think this is a function of the success of the robot resting on your shoulders... as a student you want to see your robot do well, and if you've had a hand in building it you're much more invested in the robot's success. I also know from my experiences with my team that it brings your team much closer together, and because you care about your team you want to show initiative and bring a positive impact to your team.

That said, there are also many teams who have students who show great initiative, yet their robots are almost entirely mentor built. I think the ultimate initiative-builder is letting students discover something they really enjoy doing for the team, and letting them run with it. This may mean not holding students to what they said they were interested in doing at the beginning of the season. We had one student who stated an interest in CAD. In the end that student had absolutely nothing to do with the CAD subteam, and instead was crucial in helping us wire the robot.

Team members will show initiative when allowed the freedom to discover their passion. Cliche, I am aware, but very true. This year we tried to require every student to find a sponsor and contact them. It blew up in our faces, because they weren't free to find and do what they enjoyed.

I think the reason student-oriented teams are so successful is because team members are often more free to play around and find what excites them. The teams that are more mentor-oriented and still have members who show great initiative are the teams who are lucky enough to have mentors who encourage this freedom. As high school students, we have to be free to make mistakes, to screw up... and this freedom is the ultimate initiative-builder.

my $.02