<p>How are you and your kids doing during this build season? </p>
<p>I had to stop D14 (daughter gradutating in 2014) from going to the meetings several times this year so she can work on her homework. She is so much into the team, I like that she is learning a lot and is able to do well on the team. However, I am worried about her grades. She was a straight-A student in the past, now down to several C's. </p>
<p>It is a great program and kids learn a lot. I notice girls are excelling in this program both in the leadership roles and in the technical roles and that's why I am a strong supporter of this program. But the build season takes over everything and taking a few AP classes and in a leadership role has not been easy for her (and us the parents). </p>
<p>Am I wrong about worrying about grades? How are your kids managing the time?</p>
<p>We are in this situation for the 4th year, and it is indeed very time demanding for 2 months. My son has been an A student despite this, even with his extremely difficult coursework and other ECs. Time management is very important. During these months he is not asked to do anything at home and allowed to stay late to finish homework. Other activities are prioritized. We help him to make sure he’s not missing important deadlines (now with scholarship applications). Also, it’s important that they eat properly and don’t get sick.</p>
<p>My son is now a college sophomore but in HS was very involved in FRC robotics and three colleges (RIT, Drexel and Florida Institute of Technology) offered him robotics scholarships worth quite a bit of money. Of course, that’s not why he was involved but a nice perk! He still goes back to visit the team when he comes back on breaks.</p>
<p>Time management is key and having an adviser that realizes that school is the #1 priority is another. Build season and the following competitions are intense, but that’s true of many HS activities including most sports, Odyssey of the Mind, Science Fairs, etc.</p>
<p>We have rules for D2 about lab time to keep her grades up. If she has another after school activity that day (she has one evening and one afternoon a week committed to something else), she cannot go to the lab on those days. On the other two weekdays, she can go from after school until 5:30, then has to come home for dinner and homework. Friday nights she can stay as late as the lab is open, and she can go one day on the weekend (not both even if the lab is open on both). Exceptions made if there is a three day weekend or it is between quarters (so no homework). I am a lab mentor, too.</p>
<p>How are your kids’ robots coming along? Our kids decided to spend more time designing and prototyping this year before diving into build (this is only their 2nd year as a team), so they are just building now. But I think their design is sound, and they have a good shot at a robot that can climb to the top level of the pyramid and do some shooting as well. My D is the only girl on the build/design team, so that has been interesting this year. :)</p>
<p>Really, robotics is not that much different that a student being involved in sports. It’s all about time management. My daughter would study in the morning before school, do homework during her lunch hour, and then study for an hour before bed. It was also typical for her to spend Saturday and Sunday evenings writing papers rather than socializing or watching a movie. The majority of her reviewing for AP tests took place in the car as we traveled to competitions.</p>
<p>Our team hours are: 5:00 - 8:00 on weekdays, 10:00 to 4:00 on Saturdays. We take off Wednesdays and Sundays. Maybe the last week of build season we would add more hours. We have competitive 'bots each year, so I don’t think this reasonable schedule is a detriment to building a well functioning robot.</p>
<p>Thank for all for the private messages too, that was really nice of you. </p>
<p>You are right, she was able to do fine the last two years. I think the problem lies in the low motivation towards getting school work done. She absolutely hates french and that’s one of the C. The other two are due to missing homework, she worked yesterday and should be able to bring the grades up “if” she continues to work on her homework. </p>
<p>Marlene: I like that your team takes one of the weekend off. I will pull her out on one of the weekends that she can chose. </p>
<p>intparent: That’s a great idea linking the grades to time spent for the Robotics. I will start using that, I think that should be enough motivation to get the homework done. </p>
<p>Our D’s team is mostly new members, so the experienced ones are spread too thin. However, the team is feeling confident about their design after cutting back the “features” and coming up with realistic design that can be “buildabe” based on their skill. Typically the team tries to do everything in the beginning and reducing the features towards the end. The coach seems to be confident and team seems to be happy about the progress. </p>
<p>I absolutely do not like the sound of “I will pull her”, “I will enforce” etc, but I think as a parent I need to make sure she understands the balance between school work and EC. Right? She is not into socialization or partying etc. My life was so easy when she was taking the right decsions and all I had to do was feed, drive around and be a supportive parent.</p>
<p>Our lab hours are longer than marlene’s. The lab is open from 3:00 (right after school) until 8 pm. And that is where the grade issue comes in, and why we have chosen to limit her hours in the lab to only about 3 hours on a weekday (and none if she has another activity after school or in the evening. We don’t really link it to her grades… just say that she has to limit her time because her grades WILL slip if she doesn’t have enough time for homework.</p>
<p>My D also hates French… loathes it far beyond all other subjects. We got her a tutor when she was about your D’s age (separate topic, but it was the ONLY way to get her grade up into the B range).</p>
<p>Our hours are similar to yours - from right after school to 7pm on weekdays and 11hours on Saturday and 4hrs on Sunday. And then on top of that she spends another 30mins to an hour or so writing emails to mentors, team members and other teams etc, because the leaders send out most of the emails. Is that what happens on your teams too?</p>
<p>I was just reminded of another reason that the building season can get crazy - weather. The year my son was a senior they lost about 10 days due to the school being closed. It was very frustrating.</p>
<p>We’re a community based, rather than a school based team. Part of the reason we have “reasonable” hours is that our mentors are mostly full time working professionals, often with family obligations. We need to consider their time commitments as well as those of the students.</p>
<p>We hope that the mentors provide good examples of working efficiently and effectively. We do, like every other team, sometimes struggle to keep all the students on task.</p>
<p>A positive update… D’s team did well in the regionals, they ended up as semifinalist. She was really proud of the team and herself as she led the mechanical team. Their robot did consistently well so different from last year. She also pulled her grades upto B’s at the end of the semester. Only two more months of Junior year!!! Thank you for the private messages and the support here. </p>
<p>How are your kids doing? Hopefully you all recovered from the build season.</p>
<p>Good for your D!! Our team’s results were decidedly mixed at regionals, but they did provide significant crowd entertainment when their bot fell off the pyramid from the second level a couple of times. Their team is pretty new (2nd year) and small, and their best “engineer kid” took time off during the season for drama tech crew, then he got the flu (shots all around next year!). They didn’t have a lot of margin for that, so didn’t have enough testing time at the end. They have also struggled to find mentors who know enough to really advise and direct a group of very inexperienced kids. So it was a learning experience, but they had a good time.</p>
<p>Sophomore year is actually harder than the rookie year, good for the team to try and do what ever they could. I bet it has been a great learning experience.</p>
We got her a tutor when she was about your D’s age (separate topic, but it was the ONLY way to get her grade up into the B range).</p>