Mentorship Philosophy

[Al Skierkiewicz]

John et al,
I think there is a big difference between mentor and teacher. I admire the teachers out there for the work they do everyday. Teaching is an efficient and effective method of transmitting a large amount of information and checking that the students have retained it. Mentoring is different in that the process is not very efficient, sometimes it is ineffective and the checks are largely self imposed by the person being mentored. A good mentor realizes that the life of anyone that they meet is forever changed. That change can be good or bad but it is the responsibility of each person to try and make that change a good one. Mentors make the greatest impression when they are living what they are teaching. Whether that is imparting engineering principles or simply a way to work with others. A mentor knows that each of us is different, that we learn at different rates, using different techniques. A mentor sees the obstacles and works around them to help the mentored learn something new. For those mentoring in First, it is imperative that we realize that a student in an 18 year old body is going to act like a 12 year old every once in a while. We need to remember that so much information is pushed at our students that they will forget what they learned last year and will need some retraining. A mentor will need to know when a question is a better path to learning than a lecture. They know that sometimes, it is necessary to just walk away for a few minutes to leave the student alone in their thoughts. Above all, we must remember to award success, encourage learning, and find real answers to questions even if unrelated to the project.
One of the greatest moments as a mentor came when I was a Webelos Scout leader. We had bought the boys tool box kits. My assistant and I felt that the boys needed to push themselves a little so we announced that we would not be showing them how to assemble the tool box. We would provide hands to hold parts together and demonstrate tools use but would not go beyond that. We had one boy who was very stressed that he would not be one to finish the project. We encouraged him to read the instructions and perform each step. When the evening came to an end he brought his toolbox over and informed us that he had no more parts. I asked "Does it look like the picture?" and he replied "yes". Then I told him, "I guess you are done." He replied "This is the first thing I have ever done that I didn't screw up." There was a genuine change in his face, a pride, a knowledge of self worth. It is times like that when you know you have connected somehow.
In the big scheme of things, life is a path you travel. People are coming at you from every side. Some are bumping you onto a deadend path, some are bumping you onto long and hard path, some are turning you around to retrace your steps. I have been very lucky that the bumps that I have received kept me on a pretty straight line. I thank God for that every day.

[Foster]

I'm pretty limited in my mentor abilities, so I focus on one main idea and one secondary idea.

My main thing is to teach problem solving. How to look at an abstract task (like the game) and come up with multiple possible solutions. How to weigh each solution to come up with the best suitability. Once that solution is underway either as a proof of concept / prototype how to test it to see that it's working. And when it doesn't work as expected how to diagnose and resolve the issue. And once the solution is in place and it breaks on how to decide what's broken (diagnostics) and how to fix it. In short, I'm trying to create a new wave of Sherlock Holmes (minus the meerschaum pipe). Problem solving is a life skill that pays off over and over.

Secondary to that is the concept of "if you do it right the first time, then you don't need to go back and do it again". Everybody says "I'll go back and fix it later", but that time never comes. Part of doing it right the first time is thinking through the design, the process steps and what the final product needs to look at. The two key elements are "Hope is not an Engineering Strategy" and "neatness counts".

"Hope is not an _____ Strategy" is my favorite Mad-lib. Works for most things: Design, Engineering, Project Management, etc. I try to push for less hope more know. If you know what you are doing and why you are doing it, less chance that it will be wrong and you'll need to do it over again. Thinking is easy. Doing stuff on paper or in a CAD package takes less time than making a new one. Thinking the steps out means work happens in an efficent manner taking less time and effort.

"Neatness counts" covers "measure twice, cut once", "measure with a measuring device" and "no, to the nearest 1/2" isn't good enough". Sloppy work means that you either don't know what you are doing (no design) or you don't understand why it needs to be right (transmissions to the nearest 1/2" don't work well) or you don't care (why are you here?)

One other thing that I do bring is a level of enthusiasm. I love what I do for a living, I love working on robots from design through build and programming and into the competitions. It's fun. Every night I ask my roboteers three questions: Did you learn something? Were there any safety issues? Did you have fun?

[Jon236]

Nice video just posted to youtube the other day about Mentors...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNnjJDVf82Q