Review the Tech Crest™ requirements to make sure that you have the skills and knowledge required to be a trainer for that Tech Crest™. A trainer should have content area expertise well beyond the level of the requirements in order to provide safe and accurate instruction and context for the Tech Crest™ requirements.
You must have the approval of the team coach to serve as a trainer. Trainers can be coaches, mentors, or more experienced students. Coaches should maintain a list of the adults and students on their team who they have approved to be a trainer for each Tech Crest™, ensuring that these individuals are prepared to offer appropriate instruction and can be trusted with the responsibility of training others.
While serving as a trainer typically isn't terribly time intensive, you want to be sure that you can be helpful and responsive once you agree to be a trainer.
A Tech Crest™ can be taught in a structured trainer-led class, or in the course of completing team projects, or as an independent self-paced endeavor. Before beginning work on a Tech Crest™, a student must have a conversation with the trainer to agree upon a plan of work.
Tech Crests are designed with a target five-hour completion time including instruction and work time. Actual completion times vary crest to crest and student to student.
As the student completes the Tech Crest™ requirements, the trainer should assess their progress.
The goal of Tech Crests™ is for students to build skills and knowledge relevant to their work on their robotics team. Students who have earned a particular Tech Crest™ should be prepared to apply the skills and knowledge from that Tech Crest™ to their work on the team.
The standard for completing a requirement is basic proficiency. Advanced understanding is not required — true expertise will only come when a student continues to practice and apply what they have learned over a much longer period of time.
A trainer should not add, remove, or modify requirements. The published requirements are the contract.
When work is complete, certify that all requirements have been met by submitting the Tech Crest™ Completion Form for each student. We recommend completing the form in the presence of the student so they can verify information is accurate and see that the form has been submitted.
These Tech Crests™ may be updated. A student who completes the requirements as they are written at the time that they begin work on the Tech Crest™ will be considered to have completed the Tech Crest™ even if the requirements change while they work. An earned Tech Crest™ will not be retroactively invalidated if the requirements change after completion.
