Why do teams voluntarily do FIRST without adult technical mentors?

[Andy Grady]

I think the answer to the question at hand is pretty cut and dry. Every student is inspired in different ways. In my opinion, as long as the competition gets the attention of someone and drags them in, it doesn't matter how they get there.

I've been fortunate enough to have been on multiple teams, each of which was run in a different manner. One team was highly student run, another was run mainly by engineers and teachers, and the last one had a good mix of both. My finding...the majority of students who walked away from the experience on any of the teams felt inspired in some way.

When I was a student in high school, I fell in love with the competition aspect of the game. My team at the time was a very competitive team and they focused heavily on the strategic aspect of FIRST. From that year forward I was hooked, always bringing my hunger for strategy and competition with me. When I changed teams as I became a mentor, we weren't quite as competitive as my previous team, but the results were the same. Everyone enjoyed themselves, this time because of the closeness that the design and build period brought between the students and the college mentors.

With FIRST...if the student cares, its a win win situation. As soon as you are caught up in the atmosphere, the drama, and the glory of it all...you are hooked, and thats pretty much it. Even those who dont stick around for 10+ years tend to look back on their experience as a life altering event. Thats what makes the program as a whole so important.

In closing, why search for the means when the end is more than adequate no matter what you do. The purpose of FIRST is served by just showing up.

-Andy Grady

[phrontist]

I will admit I don't have an answer. But something seems very wrong to me when I walk into a pit and ask a student about part X only to hear that the brilliant part X was designed by a professional engineer. He/She's a professional, what pride could they possibly get from trouncing a bunch of student designed robots? It's like Michael Jordan going down to the YMCA for a pickup game, joining a team, and totally dominating the other teams. How the hell would that help the kids on his team? Is it okay for Michael Jordan to go down to the Y and help kids work on their jump shots? Sure! Is it okay for a professional engineer to teach kids about practical design considerations in designing a gearbox? Of course! I think you see where I'm going with this.

To keep with the sports star analogy: Imagine if a bunch of star basketball players each adopted a team of aspiring young athletes. Then they held a big competition. I'm sure it would be inspiring to play with a sports star, but you wouldn't be doing much, would you? It would just be mentor on mentor.

What a lot of people fail to realize is that a lot of schools have a lot of inspired students already, students who walk in the first day and have known for a long time they want to be engineers/physicists/mathematicans/etc. For schools like that, maybe the Recognition is of greater importance. Other students can certainly be inspired by the nerdy ones, no?

My team currently has no engineering mentors, but I'm actively changing that. One of the FIRST things I'll do though is make clear that we are not looking for an engineer to design are robot for us so we can gaze over his/her shoulder in silent awe, then do menial tasks at there direction. I'm not sure how an engineer does fit into our team yet, by I'm sure will figure it out.

I aplogize, this is not my usual writing style, it's much more off the cuff than usual, as this is an issue which I harbor very strong opinions on.

You may now mod me down, thank you for reading.