Excerpt from the rulebook:
“In all aspects of the VEX IQ Challenge program, the Students make the decisions and do the work with adult mentorship.”
For reference, here are a few places (in addition to <G1>, which you partially quoted) where the concept of student vs adult involvement are covered in the VEX IQ Challenge.
Rule <G17> in the Game Manual:
<G17> Adults may assist Students in urgent situations, however adults should never work on or program a Robot without Students on that Team being present and actively participating.
The definition of Student, in the Game Manual:
Student – Anyone born after April 30, 2004 (age 13 or lower) or enrolled in grade 8 or lower on April 30, 2018. Anyone enrolled in grade 9 on April 30, 2018 is only eligible to participate on a VEX IQ Challenge team when enrolled in a middle school or district, which includes grade 8, but not grade 10. Students are the individuals who design, build, repair, and program the Robot, with minimal adult assistance.
The following portion of the VEX IQ Challenge Judge’s Guide:
Student-Centered Teams: The Robotics Education & Competition Foundation seeks to increase student interest and involvement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by engaging students in hands-on sustainable and affordable curriculum-based robotics engineering programs across the U.S. and internationally. Judges play an important role in our efforts to ensure that our program remains student-centered. Teachers/Mentors/Parents providing guidance and helping students design, fix or program robots is accepted. Adults doing the majority of the work on a robot, or working on a robot alone without students, is not acceptable, as there is obviously limited student learning and ownership taking place in such a situation.
Judges have the opportunity through observation and interviews to identify teams, schools and clubs that strive to keep their program student centered and that understand the purpose of the program is to enhance the learning process, not to win at all costs. Judges, with input from event staff, should identify teams that are not student-centered.
Examples of this may include:
• Robots built entirely by adults or, in the case of younger student, mentors (i.e., high school students
building robots for elementary or middle school teams).
• Identical robots on two or more teams (so called clone-bots).
• Adults who criticize students from alliance teams for poor performance, failure to perform optimally or
who blame other teams for low scores rather than offering positive suggestions.
Judges should not reward teams that Judges have clearly identified as not student-centered with any Judged awards.
And finally, this Q&A answer, which explores some of this rule’s implications:
http://www.vexiqforum.com/forum/viqc…eric-functions
There are very few things that are directly referenced in the Game Manual or other supporting documentation as many times as this topic. So, to answer your first question - yes, it really does apply.
To answer your second question, it is to be enforced at various stages of the competition. <G1> gives referees and Event Partners the latitude to Disqualify a Team from a Match if they find that this rule has been egregiously violated. <G1> and the Judge’s Guide state that Teams which are not student-centered will not be considered for judged awards.
If you feel that a specific Team is in violation of any of these rules, please bring it to the attention of your Event Partner or REC Foundation Regional Support Manager.