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Originally Posted by SouthCarolinaRo
We are getting ready to begin our third year and the amount of hours students are putting into Robotics is very concerning to me. Most importantly, safety. Either driving late at night or being careless with equipment because of lack of sleep.
I am the parent of two kids playing high school basketball. Which takes place for the first half of our build season. Our robotics kids put in three to five times as many hours than my kids do their high school teams.
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Make no mistake- being a member of a FIRST team requires an incredible amount of responsibility and maturity. Those are two factors that our team stresses at every possible opportunity. We haven't had a problem with it yet, but if we notice that a student is looking like they need a break, we will send them home.
I would highly encourage you to either talk directly with your team's mentors or get involved with the team yourself. If your team doesn't look out for students as much as it should, start changing that. No one should operate equipment without mentor supervision either, so the mentors should take notice if a student is trying to work a machine while overworked.
Luckily, all of the members on our team know their limits. Students don't show up when they have projects to finish or when they need a break. The students who are the most committed to the project and have the time to spare have also always been the ones who know how long they can work effectively and when they need to throw in the towel and get some sleep. As I said before, the best way to help your team is to get involved.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GGCO
My next question is how is this going to be enforced? Will the school hire spies to watch what people are doing when they're out of school? Or will they put software that shuts down your computer when you fire up Netbeans after x amount of hours coding?
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The "how will they stop us" defense never works, and is a poor stance to take. Most school districts do have plenty of ways of enforcing this. Detention and suspension are always possible, and the district can stop students from going on field trips (with the team or classes) amongst many other punishments.
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Originally Posted by EricH
I found my limits in H.S.
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This is exactly what high school is for, and exactly what I did as well.
Anyone who has been near a serious marching band or winter drumline knows how much dedication that takes. I managed to spend 4 years with robotics and drumline constantly clashing. For 6 weeks I was often at school from 7am to 10pm, simply walking from one activity to another. The most extreme case was the night before ship this year, when I didn't get home until 4am. I graduated with an 11.3 (yea, we use the 12-point scale) GPA. It was difficult, but a little bit of planning on my part made it possible.