I’ve been feeling like a failure as a Robot Team Mentor as our robots didn’t even move when we got to competition, and we didn’t even get to drive our robots. I was very disappointed in the other teams as they didn’t pitch in and help. A few kids tried, but they didn’t have the knowledge.
However, my husband said that he felt that I was a great mentor and a great coach, precisely because I let the kids do the work and let them learn. He thinks too many adults take over and that probably a lot of the robots were built by adults. This year we had more kids involved, but still didn’t have as many actually working as I would like. I am changing that now.
Our biggest problems were that the kids didn’t meet my deadlines. Our robots didn’t get build in time, so our programmers didn’t get a chance to do any programming or testing. Those builders might very well be off the team, we’ll have to see.
I’m working with new builders now, and I’m doing the teaching rather than letting the previous builders teach. Here’s the scheme: the new kids are following the instructions from me. If they get stuck, I’m having the previous builders help, and if they are still stuck, I’ll step in.
I also need to solve the programming problem – but I have GOT to get kids to stop building on things long enough for people to program them!
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