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Unread 01-01-2004, 13:14
KenWittlief KenWittlief is offline
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Re: Mentors

I would replace the 'and' in that statment with 'to'

FIRST only has one purpose, not two. the knowledge we are increasing is knowledge of what a technology based career is like.

We are not teaching anyone to be mini engineers - FIRST connects the math and science you have learned in HS with the applications that it can be used for

I will tell you a secret. The technology we use on the FIRST team is scraping edge - that box of junk they give you at the kickoff, compared to what is available for commercial and military engineering projects, NONE of it would be usable - you would never see a probe landing on Mars with drill motors or Victor speed controllers

(not to take away anything from what Innovation FIRST has done - the equipement we get is excellent for educational purposes - but NASA would laugh at you if you proposed to use it on their projects)

The amount of money we spend on FIRST robots wouldnt fund any of the projects I have worked on for even one week.

FIRST is here to give students a taste of engineering and science, like the retired lady at the supermarket passing out 3 grams of cheese on a cracker

FIRST is not here to feed you, or to teach you - its here to make you hungry for more :c)

or from another perspective - FIRST is like we have traveled to the future, and we dont like what we saw when we got there. So we came back and now we are attempting to alter the future

alter YOUR future!

FIRST is a journey (or in the language of the '60's, FIRST is a trip man!) We are on an adventure traveling into the future together, changing it as we go along, one day at time.

Last edited by KenWittlief : 01-01-2004 at 13:19.
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Unread 01-01-2004, 13:48
Rickertsen2 Rickertsen2 is offline
Umm Errr...
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Re: Mentors

Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Shade
Mentors provide a great deal more than the tools and knowledge of building a robot. Transferable Skills like networking, teamwork, project management, and problem solving are just a few.
Heh. You said it!! Last year was our teams rookie year and our team had no mentors. We were more or less a student run team. We were fortunate in that each of us was strong in some area or another and we more or less had no trouble with the technical side of things, but we were totally lost. We were lost not because of a lack of technical knowledge(not to say there isn't a lot we could have learned), but rather because of a loss of management knowledge. None of us had ever overseen or managed anything, and we were clueless in this area.
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Unread 01-01-2004, 22:42
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Re: Mentors

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rickertsen2
Heh. You said it!! Last year was our teams rookie year and our team had no mentors. We were more or less a student run team. We were fortunate in that each of us was strong in some area or another and we more or less had no trouble with the technical side of things, but we were totally lost. We were lost not because of a lack of technical knowledge(not to say there isn't a lot we could have learned), but rather because of a loss of management knowledge. None of us had ever overseen or managed anything, and we were clueless in this area.
Management Knowledge is the most important thing a mentor can help your team with. Management of an engineering project is not something that a high school student would generally have had experience with. After all, the most common equivalent project that comes close, that a high school student might have done is an Eagle Scout project (or the Girl Scout equivalent), and not all of those. So, since high schoolers in general have not had experience in managing projects, how could they expect to be any good at it? Especially when they are competing against pros who do it every day?

Even most teachers, who understand classroom management, do not understand engineering project management. But Project Management is one of the keys to a successful robot.

So yes you do need help, but Keith is right when he says that the team needs to figure that out for themselves. Unfortunately, some lessons are best learned through hard experience. One of the best lessons I ever learned was spending a day digging a ditch. But it came with lots of blisters! Don't be discouraged if your team winds up "wasting" a year. If they figure out what they did wrong by not accepting help when they needed it, then at least they will have learned something, and it may be a far more valuable lesson than anything a mentor would have taught them about building a robot!
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Unread 02-01-2004, 12:16
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Re: Mentors

Quote:
I will tell you a secret. The technology we use on the FIRST team is scraping edge - that box of junk they give you at the kickoff, compared to what is available for commercial and military engineering projects, NONE of it would be usable - you would never see a probe landing on Mars with drill motors or Victor speed controllers
Actually, I think you are comparing apples to oranges. The equipment that we receive is just designed for hobby use and it is pretty high tech in that regard.
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Unread 02-01-2004, 12:31
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Re: Mentors

thanks everyone for replying .. and thank you Andy Grady for the autonomous idea ... it worked and it convinced my team that we do need programming mentors which at least is a start ...

i know that we also need mentors to help with the organizational side of things .. i am currently the main one running things as that was the deal that was agreed upon so that we could have a team in the first place .. however i do not know who to ask or where to look for someone who could help me manage the team ...

please can we try to keep this thread on topic because my team really does need the help ?? thank you ...

thank you everyone once again

--shyra
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2003 : 771 - SWAT - programmer
2004 : 1353 - The Gizmos - founder/team leader - mechanical head
2005 : 771 - SWAT - team manager and captain - design and construction member

2006: 771 - SWAT - mentor
2007: 912 - Iron Lyons - mentor
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Unread 02-01-2004, 13:53
KenWittlief KenWittlief is offline
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Re: Mentors

I believe you can find a list on the FIRST website of teams in your area that are willing to mentor rookie teams - that sometimes includes lending engineers to new teams and also sharing resources.
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Unread 01-01-2004, 16:14
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Re: Mentors

Quote:
Originally Posted by KenWittlief
So we came back and now we are attempting to alter the future

alter YOUR future!

FIRST is a journey (or in the language of the '60's, FIRST is a trip man!) We are on an adventure traveling into the future together, changing it as we go along, one day at time.
Jeez Ken,
All you need to do is shout "Change the Culture!" at me, and throw in some flashy lights/text, and I'd believe I was watching a Chairman's propaganda video...

John
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