What if the student asks a question to which the mentor does not know the answer?
It is likely that the student may ask a question that their mentor cannot answer. For example, the question, “Why is the sky blue?” could involve a detailed discussion of reflection of the sun’s light in the earth’s atmosphere. Not many people would be able to delve too deeply into that one. The mentor CAN refer the student to a variety of websites that would lead the student to talk to someone knowledgeable of the subject matter. For example, the mentor could refer the student to Stanford University’s website. Stanford’s Dept. of Aeronautics and Astonautics is at http://aa.stanford.edu/. Several faculty phone numbers and email addresses are listed on this site. There is a good chance someone in this department could steer the student in the right direction or refer the student to a website discussing the question.
