Motivations and benefits for college students serving as mentors in a high school robotics competition

Abstract

Many universities provide space for student organizations, in which undergraduate students are learning leadership skills, mentor other students and bring their engineering skills to practice. Purdue FIRST Programs (PFP) is a service-learning program where students from a large research university mentor predominantly high school student teams participating in the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC). Whereas most FRC teams are mentored by professional engineers, PFP is unique in both the extent which it relies on student mentors and the overall scope of the organization. Existing models of mentorship do not adequately describe the specific relationship between the college and high schools students: (1) Due to the proximity in both age and experience, the college students cannot be considered more experienced (traditional model of mentorship) and (2) Due to the fact that both student populations are in different educational systems, the college students cannot be considered peer mentors. To help understand this alternative mentoring relationship, this study was guided by two research questions:1) What motivates PFP participants to become mentors to high school students? 2) What do these undergraduate students learn by mentoring high school students? A survey of participants in the year 2010 (n=37 returned) and semi-structured interviews with a purposefully selected sample (n=10) build the basis for this multiple case study. The interview data were transcribed and analyzed using a multiple case study with constant comparison method. Results indicate that college students' primary motivations for mentoring included wanting to continue working with FIRST after high school, wanting to contribute to the community in appreciation of their positive experiences with FIRST in high school, and enjoying doing the technical work associated with robotics competitions. The primary benefits described by the college students were the development of their leadership ability, learning how to work on a team, improving their ability to communicate, and other process skills. The students were able to give examples of applying their technical knowledge and skills as mentors, and found the opportunity to work on an applied project useful to support their classroom learning in college. The main challenges that the mentors faced included conflict resolution on the team, making sure that they understood their role, and not taking over and doing work on the robot that should be done by the high school students. Overall, the participants appreciated being able to stay connected to the FIRST Robotics Competition after high school, the ability to develop communication and leadership skills, the close relationships that they developed with the high school students, and the opportunity to contribute positively to both the local and FIRST Robotics communities. Implications and further research needs will be discussed in the paper. © 2011 American Society for Engineering Education.