Feeling a little annoyed. DS19 presented their group project today along with one other group. No other groups presented because no other groups had completed the project yet. There doesn’t seem to be any penalty for not completing the project on time.
@eandesmom On IRA, what a smart kid! :))
I read about Kiddie Roth IRA a few days ago and liked the idea very much.
I would do some kind of matching as an incentive. If you put 100% of income into Roth IRA, I would pay you 80%, or something like that 
My kids would need earned income though. [-(
@payn4ward well nice as that sounds, to match him on his IRA, all funds have to go into actual college savings first, not his retirement savings lol.
And yeah, he will need earned income first to do anything. But it was cute.
@carolinamom2boys OMG I’m so annoyed just reading your post and I don’t even know you son!!
@carolinamom2boys, I’m annoyed, too, not just as a fellow parent but as a professional educator!
I think if there’s no penalty for late work there should at least be an incentive for the students that met the deadline.
@carolinamom2boys UGH. I’ve had that happen and my kid was scheduled for a later slot but his team was "more"ready than another so had to go! There should be a penalty if the other teams weren’t ready. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that there is and the teacher just hasn’t informed the class. Sometimes though I find I have to grill my kids to find out if it really was that others weren’t ready, or just that they were and offered to go first and then technically the others really weren’t late at all since not all could be presented in one class session anyway.
@eandesmom We went to open house last night and actually met with the teacher who I voiced some concerns with regarding the time constraints for the project. She reiterated that it was due today , and they would be presenting today. Each group had 4-5 students which would make between 4-6 groups . The presentations took approx 5-8 minutes each. At least one other group should’ve had time to present , and there was time left in class after the first two presentations. That said , there was a written component to the project which IMO should’ve been turned in today even if there was not time to present today. IMO , it gives the groups who didn’t present today an unfair advantage to correct any issues with the written or demonstrated parts of the program. To be fair, giving random numbers for order of presentation would’ve been more fair , but the written part should’ve been due at the same time for everyone . To be honest , I’m glad that it’s done. The teacher assured me last night that she gives very few group projects , thank goodness .
I’m ok with group projects in class but outside is nightmarish. At a certain point though, yes, you are just glad it’s over!
@Momofmrb and others, our state offers a 4-semester scholarship to all public and a few private universities that requires three years of science including chemistry, biology, and physics (and has many other requirements including two years of foreign language, a minimum GPA and ACT score, etc.). Any US citizen who meets the minimum requirements qualifies for the scholarship, which does cover a big chunk of tuition. Our high school counselor told me that the most common thing preventing kids from getting this scholarship is that they lack physics. I don’t know how many other states or institutions have similar opportunities and requirements.
@carolinamom2boys, sympathy about group projects. S13 is applying to graduate school this fall. One of the supplements for one of the schools asks, “What would be your approach in a group project where one member is not contributing?” It’s a life-long issue, I guess. 
@eandesmom Ugh!!! Thanks for the warning.
@EastGrad, by “any US citizen” do you mean any US citizen, or US citizens who are also state residents? I’m guessing it’s the latter, but if it’s the former, we may have to find where these are and expand her search in those directions!
I mean any US citizen, @dfbdfb, but you also have to be a graduate from a high school in our state. So yes. 
Speaking of miserable group projects…DS had a big one last year and he complained bitterly that 2 of the 4 group members did little and always missed their group deadlines. At the end, they had to give a presentation to the whole school (competition) and they gave a prelim run-through in front of the teacher. Theirs was poorly prepared. Their teacher was livid and gave them an angry ‘lecture’ how disappointed he was. My do-good student was rattled but he said the two slackers laughed and shrugged it off. Anyhow at the end, the 2 workers (DS and his friend) did all the work and pulled together a decent presentation. But I was pretty annoyed as this was the 2nd time this had happened in this class. On the drive home, I started ranting a bit. “Look, you have to complain to the teacher and ask not to be assigned with these team members. This is the 2nd time this has happened.” “Assigned?” “Yeah, this is the 2nd time you’ve been assigned with these slackers and you & Thomas do all the work and you don’t get a top grade.” “Um, we are not assigned.” “What do you mean?” “Um, we choose our team members.” “You chose these guys!!! Why didn’t you choose so-and-so and so-and-so?” “Well, they’re girls and I want to be with my friends. Also they’d take charge and direct the whole project. I want to be in charge.” Lol, after that I confine myself to sympathy noises when DS complains about group projects.
@liska21 Ha! Ok. One more very recent group project here. Chemistry H - four kids had to do the lab report so they split it up. S19 did the first section and tried to see the rest of the groups work via Google Docs up until 10:30 when he was done with homework and wanted to go to bed. He texted the kids and they all said they would get it done but not before midnight. S19 went to bed. Fast forward to the next day and teacher grabbed the lab off of Googles Docs and the only section that received full credit was S19’s. Of course, he just blames the other kids. I told him that he should have gotten up early and checked their work before they submitted it right before class. I got an eye roll. And he got a 60 percent on that lab. That should teach him. Sorry, buddy, sometimes you have to go way above and beyond if your name is going to be on an assignment with other kids’ work.
Group “project” vent here too. S19 had a precalc quiz that was done as a group. The group worked at a pace to make sure all the kids understood the question and contributed to the answers (apparently one kid was really struggling). As a result, they didn’t manage their time and only completed 4 out of 5 questions so got 4/5 points. Which gave him a B. As the only item in the test/quiz category and with that being weighted at 65% of the grade…it brought his total grade down to a B.
Good news is he has a “real” test tomorrow worth 10x the points so it should come right back up but super annoying!
Oh Man! These stories hit home! I was helping DD with AP Psych and came across;
“Social Loafing” = In social psychology, social loafing is the phenomenon of people exerting less effort to achieve a goal when they work in a group than when they work alone.
I’ve been making too many Quizlets recently… 
Group project from long ago. DS13 had a science fair project with a kid down the street. The kid did nothing!! I was so mad!! I was mad for years about it. They won at school, got 1st at the county level and went on to regional’s… That kid got awards to put on his resume for college apps and when he did nothing. The next year he wanted DS to give him the project so he could “add” on to it. I went and hid it. There was no way I was going to let that kid use the stuff DS had done. Fast forward they both went to GT. The kid couldn’t keep his grades up and got kicked out…
@MichiganGeorgia wow! what a story!!!
Both of my kids always check over their coworkers contributions to projects. My younger d seems to prefer being in groups where her team lets her take charge and do most of the work because then she knows it’s being done right.
Once my d19 did write a scathing evaluation of a team member. This person didn’t help at all and then when they presented, the student criticized aloud the work my d and another student had done. My d was furious.