GP? I think not.

[Steve W]

Originally Posted by Rex114

After reading a few responses to my post, I can sum up what I understand in three simple statements:
Completely mentor built robots are ok.
A mix of mentor and student built robots are ok.
Completely student built robots are not ok.

Is there something I'm missing? If so, what is it? I used to think all three methods were acceptable, but it seems to not be the case anymore.

Mike C.

I think that you are twisting things a bit. Mentor bots are OK but not ideal. If students learn and become inspired great, if not then it is no good. Mixed bots are the best scenario as the students are working side by side with engineers, how can you lose. Student bots are OK as the students will learn or crash and burn (also a learning experience). This is not as good as mixed bots as there is no real engineering experience being taught by engineers.

I guess my thought is why do you go to school? To learn from those that have learned. There are good and bad teachers as there are good and bad engineers. What would a school be without teachers and were would FIRST be without engineers?

[DanTod97]

Originally Posted by Steve W

What would a school be without teachers and were would FIRST be without engineers?

And what would a school be with teachers who did all the work?

[Adam Y.]

Originally Posted by DanTod97

And what would a school be with teachers who did all the work?

This is engineering that we are talking about. In a significant number of cases you are going to dumb down the concepts to the point where it doesn't help at all. On top of that Dave was right. You truly loose out on learning about science and technology without an engineering mentor. I'm in college and it still manages to amaze me the things that I am learning.