Quote:
Originally Posted by Madison
For what it's worth, I edited my earlier post a bit. I didn't think my position through entirely.
I think we could look to FTC a bit to see how a season with no end plays out. I can't speak for any other than the three teams we field and the few we've shared a build space with, but we end up cramming as much in near the end as we do for FRC. We're far less intense about our work in the early part of the season than we are in FRC, though; we don't make effective use of the additional time.
|
I'll second the FTC comparison. BadgerBOTS as an organization supports four FTC teams, in the past season I interacted with three of them (we all work out of the same space), and I am head coach on one of them. All of those teams met pretty casually around the start of the season, and then started cramming it in towards the end.
As far as the six week build goes, I'm definitely for keeping it. I imagine that i fyou made it nine weeks, most teams would end up working the same hours per week that they do currently, for three more weeks.
Plus, I think it's useful for showing students what you can achieve when you really push hard and work for it. Every season starts with the students (and mentors too!) saying "Oh man, how the heck are we going to make this happen in six weeks?!?! It's crazy!" But by the end, you have a working robot that nobody thought would be possible, but there it is. I think you lose some of that excitement and sense of accomplishment if you don't have that deadline.
As Woodie Flowers put it once (I'm paraphrasing): "It's a problem too large, with a budget too small, a staff too big, and a deadline too short."