Unfortunately, our problem is NOT student enthusiasm. Our limiting factor is the number of hours the students are ALLOWED to work.
Because we're building offsite from the school, due to insurance rules, a teacher MUST be present for the students to work. So, we're really limited by whatever hours we can find a TEACHER to be there. That's proved more difficult than we first thought. Most teachers are seriously overworked now, so not many are hot on the idea of going across town after a long day (plus papers to grade, etc.) to attend a build at an offsite location for long hours. Therefore, we have "teacher signup shifts". Different teachers are there for different days, and we have "holes" on occasion.
Whenever there's no teacher students can meet, program, carry materials around, sort, document, etc. but may not operate any power tools. Even "allen wrench work" is considered taboo. A "designated adult" becomes their "hands" to assemble something a STUDENT needs assembled. (A very weird situation...)
Needless to say this is a real pain to get much done whenever a teacher isn't there. We're trying to work out this insurance snafu now, but as we're already into Week Four of the build, we're not sure it'll make much difference at this point.
We KNEW this limit would factor into our robot's
complexity. No "twenty seven motor 3D vectoring hovercraft drives with fifteen DOF arms" that takes 5000 machinist hours to make, etc... But, this just serves to make you think HARD about what you want to do, keep the KISS principle FIRMLY in mind, and be EFFECTIVE with your work hours.
We also had the foresight to chose our build technology VERY wisely (structural extrusion, modular assembly, etc.). This has allowed INCREDIBLY FAST progress whenever we CAN work, so we're still MUCH further ahead this year than my last team was last year.
We don't expect completion to be a problem. In fact, I think everyone should like what you see when it does arrive. 'Tis gonna be a VERY COOL robot...
Bottom line: Students may work a maximum of roughly 20 hours a week AT the site, but they come in PRIMED to work. Many however think about it a lot outside the build area, and come in with drawings, ideas, etc., so it is EXTREMELY hard to determine exactly how many hours any one student REALLY works on it.
Like any "passion", you virtually LIVE it while it is happening. How CAN you honestly count "the hours invested" in it???
- Keith