Homework V.S Robotics
 

Hello everyone, especially juniors,

I will start by saying this is not a bawww thread, but an actual place to talk about ways we balance FIRST and Homework.

I am a HS junior, and am in an honors chem, APUSH(ap us history), and AP language. Now i get the feeling that as soon as the season rolls around, this 3-4 hours of hw a night thing is going to make it nearly impossible to do anything for the team anymore, once the uber awesome nine at night build days come along.

How do you handle Robotics and Hw at the same time, and keep yourself sane and safe?

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

When I was a HS I got better time management skills and learned to function on less sleep. I recommend the former not so much the latter.

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

It's going to be a challenge. Last year, I juggled 4 AP classes (and two others) during a harrowing build season. Like Andrew suggested, there was some learning of time management and some weeks with 5 hours of sleep total. This year, I'm continuing the over-working trend with 3 APs and 2 college classes, but decided to step down my robotics involvement. There simply wasn't any other choice.

My best advice: minimise your waste and maximise your time. Work on homework during school as much as possible (including lunch). Once you get home, don't lollygag like I am right now; get right to work. Most of all, get a good night's sleep on Sunday; you can't overcome a bad start (I've tried).

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

At the moment I just finished my Digital Electronics Hw, and am studying APUSH. My math will get done in a few. Problem with team is that we are highly dysfunctional due to lack of leadership.

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

just do robotics.

Or you just not sleep (3 APs, 1 actual college course. I get about 5 hours. On weekends I sleep for about 18. the extra rest really helps)

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

Cory, are you at Arrowhead by chance?

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

[Edited per Andrew's request]

On the subject of the OP, AP classes are easier to manage once you develop a study strategy and schedule for them. There's certain ways and sources to study from for AP so it's really not too difficult to balance it with robotics. Bring work with you to robotics, let your robotics teachers/mentors know what work you have to complete and time you need. Do AP homework in school if you get time. Biggest help that we have on our robotics team is that we have robotics classes for all 4 grades, so any student in robotics classes is generally allowed to use the Robotics Engineering class period to do their homework. Senior year, a bunch of us had double block Honors Robotics, so this time added up and helped us do our work. If you concentrate, and your teachers are aware of the whole 6 weeks of robotics commitment (MORT's main teacher emails our teachers of all events/build season), you should be doing somewhere around 2.5-4 hours max of homework a night- also depends heavily on the teachers and school mentality towards robotics team.

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

I feel your pain on the sleepless Sundays.

Anyways, like others said work on schoolwork as much as you can during school. If there is a time where your teacher finishes instruction early, do your work. The major thing is to not let tiredness stop you from making good use of time.

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

No mentors at the moment. I may have stated that in a way that could be embarrassing to our team, but the bigger thing is we simply have no idea how to handle it.

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

Just to clarify, that would NOT be on CD.

This isn't the place for it and it isn't the place for outright insults to team members. I'm all for being honest but there are a lot of awfully nasty things said in the fourth post of this thread and I would recommend that the poster edit/remove it. (Also Akash, if you would mind unquoting it so that the OP can delete some of it?)

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

Sorry for brutal honesty, but i'll get rid of it. Thanks

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

My suggestion is to never do homework when you're extremely tired. In my experience, you don't actually get it done and you're still losing on sleep. Just set your alarm early and drift off -- you'll end up getting more sleep total, since you'll have the slight panic factor of "oh I have to get this done by 7:30", you'll be more awake to do it, and (bonus) you'll be more awake for classes.

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

Thanks.
Sorry for the complaining and whining. What I posted earlier was uncalled for, based off of being tired, stressed and trying to figure out the final part of the marketing robots electronics layout using our old IFI gear. I'm not passing blame off to those things, but acknowledging that I posted somehting misguided and self destructing, with those thoughts helping to drive my words. I accept that I posted that, and apologize to my team and to you.

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

My junior year of HS was pretty rough. I don't remember my course load(I don't remember much from that year honestly). I managed with 4 hours of sleep a night for a few months including build season and surrounding.

Some of the pitfalls: I was sick a lot. I'm usually sick once a year if that, that year I was sick four or five times. This was not only caused by lack of sleep, but also helped make it worse. My classwork suffered, and my team involvement suffered.

There are two things you can really do. First is to manage your time, decide exactly how much time you have for each task you need to do. This includes sleep. Sleep time isn't decided by whatever is left over after everything else is done. Budget 6-8 hours for it. If you're exhausted move up bedtime and wake up earlier. I've found that waking up 2 hours earlier is easier and more productive than trying to stay up just a half hour later than when your body begins demanding sleep. Second know where to cut. If 24hrs aren't enough to get everything done for the day its time to start taking things off the to-do list. Maybe leave the robotics meeting an hour early to get HW done if you have a heavy load that day, or skip it altogether. I don't know how your team is, but I have a hard time telling students they should be focusing on FIRST at the detriment of their studies. It doesn't help to inspire students towards STEM, then shoot them in the foot accidentally by disallowing appropriate homework time.

Also as tempting as it is to start drinking energy drinks, mountain dew, caffeine etc. stay away from that stuff as much as you can. It helps in the short term, but over the course of a semester or build season, it all starts to catch up with you.

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

Neither of those is the right choice. Robotics, as fun as it is, cannot replace your coursework, which you'll need to graduate. Sleep is essential as well. If I try to go beyond about 2-3 AM without sleeping, I start becoming less and less functional, and caffeine doesn't do much to extend that time. All-nighter? I'll try to get a couple hours of sleep in beforehand, and I'll be functional for another several hours before needing food/sleep/caffeine again.

How important is sleep? The design lab here at college put closed hours in place, running from 2:00 AM to 7:30 AM, to get students out to get some sleep and do homework (the ones that were still functional enough to do homework). Note, this is the rough equivalent of a robotics team's shop...

For someone like me, the priorities are: Homework, sleep, design team(s); I try to get out of the lab a bit every now and again, doing various things to have fun.

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

Last year I didn't do so well with juggling robotics. My advice, make sure to keep up in your hard classes, the easier classes are better to take a hit in. If you can, do homework during low times in robotics, for example as a part of the cad team I don't need to work 100% of the time except from weeks 1-2.

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

If you're taking any hit at all, are your priorities straight?

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

I know this selection has been discussed, but not in a constructive way. There's a saying that floats around a lot of FRC teams - "After your rookie season comes your mentor season." Leadership doesn't have to come from folks old enough to remember the Challenger. In the absence of strong, dedicated adult leadership, take it upon yourselves as team veterans to help organize the tasks that need accomplished in the team. Do it now, before the school year :really: starts.
I think you'll find that when the students take a stronger and more thoughtful role in the team, the adult leaders will respond and reciprocate. If their workload is lightened, they'll be more productive on the things they can do.
Good luck and I hope to see you in STL.

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

Work smarter.

Manage your workspace well: your home area where you study, your school locker, and your backpack. Organize all of them and keep them organized. If you think that it takes time to do that, you are right. If you don't keep them organized, it will take more time playing catch up and trying to locate the assignment, the schedule, the paper, the book. Homework isn't just assigned - it is meant to be a process that is problem-solved through to completion. It is also meant to be taken care of in a timely fashion without procrastinating. If you are a person who is not strong in the organizational side of things, seek out someone who is and who can help you get yourself more organized. A school counselor or adviser could be used as an organizational resource.

If you find yourself whining, complaining, or blaming - stop. Become productive and helpful, contributing to solutions rather than harping on the problems. Maturity plays a big role in the productivity of the team and in the development of the individual.

Jane

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

Definitely.

Take a step back, make sure your grades aren't dropping full letter grades. A lot easier to do this kind of balancing act in high school than college. And if you already find yourself with dropping grades in high school...well then good luck doing activities in college.

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

I know it may seem downright impossible, but try to stay off Chief Delphi for a while. I know I check it more than Facebook sometimes, and with a similar course load (though I'm a sophomore), I find I can get a lot more done if I stay away from Chief Delphi, or even just shove my laptop under my bed. Out of site, out of mind, my mom used to say, and it's true. If you can't see it, you are usually not thinking about it. Like the homework supposed to be done while you're on CD. So, I'd say eliminate distractions as a first. I also recommend some things said previously on the thread, about waiting until you are feeling tired, because then you are more motivated. BUT, I wouldn't recommend doing that all the time. Like said earlier, you should try to do as much work as possible during school, and lunch. I know how the battle between eating with friends and doing homework t lunch feels like, but you've got to prioritize. Would you rather have your social time at a 1/2 hour of lunch, or during the entire robotics meeting? Plus, There are a great number of resources available at school for you, so if you may need any, lunch is usually the perfect time to do it.

School>Robotics, but as I always say, School=Education, and Robotics=Education, so therefore school=robotics (That probably makes no sense.)

WHat I'm saying is it's important to do both. While school is a bit more important than robotics, the education and experience you get from a FIRST robotics team is more valuable than most of what you can learn in school (that is, until Amir Abo-Shaer changes it).

Just my $0.02, but I hope it helps.

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

Some good advice in here already.

Going through my last couple years of college at Northeastern taught me a lot about time management. The biggest piece of advice I'll give you is to try and learn to start thinking a week or two ahead of time. If you can see ahead at what blocks of free time you'll have and plan around them, you will be able to make much better use of your time.

For example, my schedule would often have gaps in it based on what classes I had that day. I may have blocks of time where I have an hour or two off between classes. I got the majority of my work done in these breaks. I could stagger and plan my assignments based on when they were due and how important they were.

Studying for exams was another critical skill. I developed a system that worked for me that allowed me to best retain the information I would gather from a large study session. What worked for me, often didn't work for my friends, so it's important to learn about yourself and develop your own set of learning tools.

It's all about working efficiently. Don't watch TV and do homework at the same time, or cruise the internet intermittently while you are studying. It will only make you spend more time (which you won't have) on it.

It's good that you are recognizing this a hurdle to being involved in FIRST. Just about every student will need to deal with this, so tackling it head on is definitely the best course of action.

-Brando

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

I have 4 APs plus other courses this year, and I'm our team's VP, and I'm so glad I'm not the only one. My main focus is attempting to do whatever simple homework possible whenever given a minute free. I'll stay up at night working on reports and such, but simple nightly assignments are done whenever I find a moment.

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

What does "V.S" stand for ?

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

I manage to balance robotics (which goes pretty much year round for my team) with daily football practices and during the winter hockey practices... on top of this I have 3 AP classes 2 honors classes as well as a business class and economics... its a lot of work to do but its all about time management which is something u learn as u go through high school. I've always been a busy kid so whenever I get a few minutes to work on homework I do. Even if you only get a couple questions done each time its still more than u had done before. When you're working on homework stay focused, don't let your mind wander off... just get it done... one more thing that helps me a lot is dividing and conquering amongst friends for large assignments... doing that only works if youre paying attention when u talk about the answers though... I don't condone cheating but if it comes down to losing 2 hours of sleep or just trading the answers of confusing questions and talking about them tomorrow before school is take the trade part... I do all these things and maintain a 4.1 so it should work for others too... that's my $.02

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

It stands for not having done enough homework. :D

Nah, it's probably just a typo, transposing the S and the period. But you knew that, right?

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

come again?

I may be misunderstanding your post, but it sounds like you're saying that you and your friends are cheating your way to high grades in your AP classes.

If I'm wrong, please clarify.

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

Especially if you or your friends are in the running for class valedictorian or salutatorian. Public admissions of unethical behavior can be very damaging not only to yourself but all implicated.

Study groups can be a critical method to use, both in secondary and postsecondary education, and I think any educator would be in favor of them. But when it's just trading answers, not only is that unfair to the classmates who actually do the work, but the offenders don't really learn the material in the first place. When you cheat, you mostly cheat yourself.

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

Ah, I see someone shares my sense of Socratic irony :-)

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

Fresh out of high school, here's how I did with IB (like AP but different):

a) Take some time to breathe and zone-out. Otherwise you'll be less focused during your productive hours because you're burnt out.

b) Avoid super-caffine products when its time to hunker down and do things. When you're all jittery, your not going to focus (be honest when assessing if you are an exception to this rule).

c) Accept that you might not be able to give all three options (homework, robotics, sleep) 100%. You're going to miss out somewhere (either less sleep, not-as-great grades, or less time with the team). Pick your poison.

d) Plan out your time. Assess how long an assignment will take (over-estimating is better). Figure out some sort of system where you can block out when you have robotics, band, that one meeting for that thing, and when you have free time (which should become homework time).

e) Don't procrastinate. (Yeah, right.)


I tried to keep it short. Remember that robotics looks good when applying for scholarships and colleges, but it doesn't make up for bad grades.

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

Well when i put this thread up, I was doing stuff and not paying attention to my typing. If my terms are correct though, the time spent awake is inversely related to the ability to type coherently.

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

Or do anything else coherently. Yep, it is an inverse relationship.

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

What I meant by that is that we work togegether on assignments to try and figure different problems out. Then we trade them before school, and then we talk about how we got that answer. I by no means meant to make it sound like we divided up problems and then copied the other persons. Sorry for the misunderstanding, I now realize my post was worded very oddly.

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

Except falling asleep. Man I get REALLY good at falling asleep the longer I am awake.

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

Used to do high school & college homework while riding the bus or carpooling. Save time, save a tree.

Ditto the comments about turning off tv & other distractions. Just like a computer running too many programs/apps at once, it slows down productivity while the survival part of your brain is continually monitoring the background noises.

Eliminate unecessary tasks.

Since starting this team with my kid & her friends, I've reduced household chores to a minimum. Who cares if there are new life forms developing in the refrigerator or in the jungle that used to my yard, anyway?

Seriously, thanks for posting to this thread. As a non-school affliliated team, myself & the other adults have lamented the fact that we can't utilize school time for robotics and see it as a real challenge for the team to learn & do everything required of a FRC team.

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

On our team, we would take our homework with us to the shop since there was a group of us who had a ton of homework. I found it easier because if I needed a break from homework, I got up and went to work on the robot and vice versa.

Study groups are the way to go! Time management is a tricky but invaluable lesson from your FIRST experience.

Good luck!

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

I heard this somewhere before... only with "social life" instead of robotics. :D

Re: Homework V.S Robotics
 

One of the most difficult things I have had to do is balance my IB and AP workload with attending Robotics meetings. In my second year of IB, starting January of 2011, I had numerous essays (Extended Essay, TOK Essay, World Lit essays, Math portfolios, Physics labs, and more) to write and perfect, as well as presentations to do (Extended Essay Presentation, TOK Presentation, English Oral Commentary, Spanish Oral Exam). All of this came right in the middle of the Robotics Build season.

However, I decided even before build season started that both IB and Robotics were important, and that I would not compromise on either. I made sure never to fall behind on my IB work and even worked as far ahead as I could whenever I found a slot of free time, so that in the future I would have less work to do and hence more time for robotics. I ended up having to miss only a few meetings, and I was able to do quite well on my IB diploma, receiving a 38/45 points.

In short, I had a ridiculous amount of work to do, but I managed to stay on top of it by getting work done whenever I had free time.