GP? I think not.

[Jared Russell]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

Um, no. FIRST encourages mentors to show students what engineering is and how rewarding it can be. FIRST encourages teams to establish ways for students to be inspired by what is possible.

Is the reward of seeing your own sweat and blood operate on the field not as inspiring as seeing someone else's succeed?

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

Oh, that's easy. The I in FIRST stands for Inspiration. Are you not inspired by a well-designed, well-engineered, well-built, effective, game-winning machine?

Of course I am inspired, but watching engineers succeed in a design challenge should be expected. That's why they are engineers. The Inspiration part can come from closing the gap, in seeing that "hey, I can be an engineer too".

I want to make it clear that my opinion is not the one of the original poster. I have tremendous respect for teams like the Technokats, and I believe that they are one of the few true model FIRST teams.

I'm just trying to say that there is no one single path to success in FIRST, and that while a team without engineers is missing out on a big part of the experience, a team (with some engineering guidance) that lets the kids make some of their own mistakes has just as valid an approach.