<p>current students?</p>
<p>mm??</p>
<p>wow, that is just sooo exciting.</p>
<p>I'll pitch even, even though I am not a student. My son (who doesn't share my CC addiction) is doing a robotics course. There are apparently 3 different versions of robotics courses over IAP. Teams build robots to perform a task. One of the courses uses Legos and sensors. <a href="http://web.mit.edu/6.270/www/%5B/url%5D">http://web.mit.edu/6.270/www/</a>
Another involves a kit full of parts and sensors to be combined with parts the team build themselves. The robots are prgrammed to perform autonomous tasks involving the sensory imputs they receive. <a href="http://web.mit.edu/6.270/www/%5B/url%5D">http://web.mit.edu/6.270/www/</a>
The third involves programming the robots to play Robocraft, a real time strategy game. <a href="http://maslab.lcs.mit.edu%5B/url%5D">http://maslab.lcs.mit.edu</a> </p>
<p>All 3 courses have a competition btwn teams at the end. Apparently it's very popular for spectators, particularly the Robocraft one. Pebbles, what are you doing?</p>
<p>Oh yeah, the 6.270 competitions are really popular - I know tons of people involved in that. I was going through a no-money-for-food period during sign-ups and thought it was too expensive :)</p>
<p>I'm taking a weather-forecasting class for 6 units and starting a UROP that I'll hopefully continue in the summer :D</p>
<p>I'm taking the EMS class- 8 hours a day, 4 days a week, and half days on Fridays. Yipee!</p>
<p>Oops, I put the wrong link for one of the IAP robotics courses. Also, the third one isn't actually a robotics course at all. You don't build a robot; you write a computer game involving robots. I'll leave it in anyway since it has a robot theme. Here they are again:</p>
<p><a href="http://web.mit.edu/6.270/www/%5B/url%5D">http://web.mit.edu/6.270/www/</a> (legos)
<a href="http://maslab.lcs.mit.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://maslab.lcs.mit.edu/</a> (autonomous "seeing" robots)
<a href="http://robocraft.mit.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://robocraft.mit.edu/</a> (writing a Robocraft game)</p>
<p>Another dad here and my son also does not do CC. I saw Laura's post and had to add that my son, a freshman, will also be doing the EMS thing, but I don't think he knows about the half day on Friday. Is it EMS or EMT? I was thinking EMT, not that it really matters I guess.</p>
<p>Mom here (son doesn't post). He's doing the robocraft competition, ski class, mystery hunt and starting his UROP. Good thing he's slept through the last 2 weeks as he won't have much time in January.</p>
<p>56forceout: EM stands for "emergancy medical." The "S" is for "service" and the "T" is for "technician," so EMS is the group while EMT is the person. So I suppose you could say that you're taking the "EMS class" as the class that EMS is offering, or the "EMT class" as the class to become an EMT.</p>
<p>Anyway, I think I was sort of unofficially told that while the actual class ran Monday-Thursday, that we'd be given other instruction on Fridays like MIT procedures, driving the ambulance, stuff like that. Not totally sure exactly how that'll happen though, so I could be wrong.</p>
<p>Glad there'll be other freshmen with me. =)</p>
<p>Laura: Thanks, I think it's great that you guys are doing this by the way. I'm pretty sure you know my son and he tells me that there is at least one other freshman doing EMS other than you and himself, that he is aware of. Have fun with it!</p>
<p>My son does not post here, either. He does not mind if I post on this on his behalf (I asked...).</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Mystery Hunt.</p></li>
<li><p>Squash (four days a week).</p></li>
<li><p>Reading "Algebra" by M. Artin. He is taking 18.318 and is taking one of the prerequisites (18.702) at the same time. This is the text for 18.702.</p></li>
<li><p>Watching cool stuff (like Robotics competitions).</p></li>
<li><p>Working on serious math competition stuff (HMMT and AoPS/WOOT).</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Urinetown!!!</p>
<ol>
<li>UROP (as always)</li>
<li>PE -- step class (last PE and I'm done!)</li>
<li>Going to Maine/NH/VT on the weekends to see my boyfriend compete in skiing.</li>
<li>Starting grad school interviews -- UCLA on Jan 21!</li>
<li>Reading? Sleep?</li>
</ol>
<p>Hey over30, my boyfriend is taking the ski class too. He says the mountain is no great shakes, but it's nice for him to get some time on snow -- most of the guys he competes against take the winter off from college to ski nonstop.</p>
<p>Mollie, is he in the beginner's class? (He's a snowboarder isn't he?) My son is definitely a neophyte as it rarely snows where we live and it's very flat, so snow on a mountain will be a first for him. He's really excited about learning though and the quality of the mountain won't matter. Sounds like fun!</p>
<p>No, he's a freestyle skiier -- they do two sets of moguls and aerials on their course. Two years ago when he did the skiing PE, he explained to them that he's a competitive skiier (he can probably ski better than he can walk), and they gave him an individual instructor and let him play around on the mountain a little.</p>
<p>He said that Nashoba Valley is a great mountain to start skiing on, so sounds like your son will have a great time.</p>
<p>I'm BACK, baby.</p>