How involved are your mentors?

[Jeff Pahl]

Originally Posted by JVN

Our team is run 50/50 with mentors and students working hand in hand on ALL aspects of the season. We've found when students get to work as peers with "real" engineers, magic happens. This really allows our students to get the most out of the FIRST experience.

-John

I'm going to be the second to quote John in this thread, because he sums it up so well.

Personally, I prefer to build parts that the students designed, than to have them build parts the engineers designed. However, what happens is that the students develop the design concept with assistance from the engineers, and then the engineers work with them to make make it something that can be built, so they can learn that important piece of the puzzle. And then, because none of the 4 high schools represented on our team teach shop classes anymore, the engineers work with the students to teach them fabrication techniques and the importance of taking pride in their work. Then we all work together to get it done and in the crate.