FLL 2007: Regional Finals in Kent and in Medway

Guidelines for Mentors (version 3)

Introduction

Firstly, thank you for volunteering to be a mentor.

We (the Computing Laboratory with our sponsors) have put together these guidelines to provide information that might be useful to you as a mentor. Any suggestions, corrections or feedback will be very welcome. See the section getting help below for who to contact.

What does a mentor do?

Ideally each team is guided by three adults: a team coach and two mentors. The team coach will be a member of the school staff. This person may already know about the competition, for example if their school entered the competition last year. However they may also be quite new to it all and may be learning about the competition as well as about the technology involved.

A mentor brings additional experience to help the team. This is not necessarily technical experience. It might be experience of working in a team, making presentations, managing work to meet a deadline, or another non-technical skill.

One mentor will be provided by the The University of Kent and its FLL partners and this is where you fit in. Any other mentor will be provided by the schools and may well be a teacher or a parent.

What FLL expects

Here are some quotations taken from The FIRST LEGO^® League International Team Manual (2004):

"A mentor is a guest who works with the team in his/her area of expertise. Typically, a mentor will visit the team multiple times."

"Why are mentors so important? Mentors help the coach and add an outside perspective for the team members. Also, mentors serve as powerful role models for the team members."

What the school expects

Schools that participated last year may have an expectation of how the mentor can help them based on that experience. Schools that are entering the competition for the first time may not yet have any idea of what role the mentor will play. Indeed they may still be unclear about many aspects of what is involved in the competition. Learning about the competition might be the first thing that the mentor can help with.

What we expect

We expect each mentor to take an interest in their team, to encourage and support them, so that they are helped to maintain their interest throughout the preparation period.

We do not expect that to begin with the mentors will be knowledgeable about the FLL competition or about the LEGO^® hardware or the software to be used. But you will probably learn a lot about these things as time goes on.

We expect the mentor to give accurate advice and information. You are likely to be asked many questions that you cannot immediately answer. It is most important that you check with someone knowledgeable or with the documentation about the comptition before giving an answer in those cases.

We hope that you will be a valuable link between the school and the university. You can bring queries (technical or other) to people here and can help the schools to understand what they need to do. You can let us know if the school is experiencing problems that may require extra help from us.

Much of your work can be done by email or on the phone but we are hoping that each mentor will be able to visit their team twice. We will provide travel expenses for two journeys - see more on this below. You are very welcome to attend on competition day if you are available.

University mentors (staff and students) please note that any email correspondence with the schools must be done using your university email account. This is for your protection so that, if necessary, we can trace messages from our log files.

It is not the role of the mentor to solve the competition challenges for the teams or to tell them what to do.

What the mentor can expect

We think you will find it a very rewarding experience to be working with the schools, both the pupils and the staff. Teams generally put a great deal of effort into their preparation. Your help and advice will be valued and you will be surprised and pleased with the enthusiasm and achievements of the teams.

Training

Because you will be working in schools, it is important that you receive careful training for your protection as well as the pupils'. We arrange for all our mentors to be trained as SEAs ( Science and Engineering Ambassadors). This training will be provided by SETPOINT Kent & Medway, an outlet of the national STEMNET organisation which exists to promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths in schools. Their training will include an explanation of the SEAs scheme and advice on working with teachers and children. In addition they will help you to obtain any checks that are needed for working with young people.

We will also train you in details of the competition, including this year's challenges.

The timetable

The current timetable is available on our website. Please note that it may be updated from time to time so you need to keep an eye on it.

Travelling to and from the school

How to travel

This will depend on where your school is and what transport, if any, you have available. Some, but not all, are fairly readily accessible by public transport. We will bear this in mind when assigning mentors to schools. It is one of the reasons that we are suggesting two visits to the schools as the norm. Please discuss any problems with Janet Linington.

Insurance issues

If using your own vehicle, you must inform your insurance company. We will need to know that you have done this before we can pay travel expenses.

Taking passengers

You must not give lifts to the school pupils.

Giving lifts to adults will be dependent on your insurance policy.

Keeping records

There is information we need to have if we are to reimburse you for your expenses. You will need to keep careful records of date of travel, destination, reason for travel. You will also need to note the mileage done or keep the train and bus tickets. If it is necessary to use a taxi, (if not sure please ask first) then get a receipt from the driver.

Claiming expenses

Please ask us for claims forms as you need them (these are now done electronically). Remember that we can only reimburse you for two visits to the school.

Getting help

For help on the following topics, try asking these people (contact details below).

Any questions about mentoring	Fred Barnes or Janet Linington
LEGO^® Mindstorms equipment	David Barnes or Fred Barnes
Schools and teams, transport, and anything else	Janet Linington

Contacts

Who	Where	Phone	email
David Barnes	Computing	(82)7696	D.J.Barnes@kent.ac.uk
Fred Barnes	Computing	(82)4278	F.R.M.Barnes@kent.ac.uk
Janet Linington	Computing	(82)7936	J.W.Linington@kent.ac.uk

Schools & Colleges Liaison