Snow days

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by jvriezen

Our local school district, based on a forecast for extreme cold on Monday (4 days from now) is cancelling school and all school activities for Monday.

Just for my own curiousity, what constitutes "extreme cold" in Minnesota? I've been there for -40 temperatures (up in Bemidji) and things seemed to be running fine.

[coalhot]

I remember back in 2009, Philadelphia schools were closed close to 3 weeks straight because of badly timed snow -> ice cycles. Myself and three other student ended up building the robot, from kitbot, in three days.

It was similar in 2010, but there were a few days in between the three weeks. It wasn't as bad.

Best think to do is to find a place offsite to work. It may be difficult logistically, but it's worth it to get stuff done, especially if there's supposed to be a lot of snow, and if it's back-to-back.

[cadandcookies]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

Just for my own curiousity, what constitutes "extreme cold" in Minnesota? I've been there for -40 temperatures (up in Bemidji) and things seemed to be running fine.

Depends on the district. There are plenty of places in the state where the phrase "extreme temperatures" doesn't mean anything. Other places have thinner skin (or jackets ).

Team 2220's school district basically doesn't believe in snow days. Only truly bizarre weather warrants snow days. Snow in January, no way, snow in May, maybe.

[Samwaldo]

Our snow days always seem to be the days we need most. We usually lose a week. (So jealous of the teams who have such nice weather they can even practice outside). If schools closed, were not allowed by the town. The best you can do on those is CAD.

Im a bit worried this season because we have had alot more snow days than usual at this point.

[yash101]

You guys are so lucky. At least you get snow Our winter is your summer!

Anyways, I'm pretty sure it is based off the rules of the school.

Options:
Work from home, maybe video chats
Day off
Move to Arizona
Find out if you can go to school

However, I don't know if it would even be easy to go to school. There will probably be snow everywhere.

[cgmv123]

We're likely to not have school on Monday either. -35 wind chill at 7AM is downright dangerous. I'll most likely be CADing up different robot ideas and making up quizzes on the game manual for my team.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by yash101

You guys are so lucky. At least you get snow Our winter is your summer!

There are advantages and disadvantages of both hot and cold weather. If it is cold, you can wear more clothing, or even burn some wood (hey, the stuff grows on trees!). But imagine getting several inches of snow, once a week, that you absolutely MUST move off any surfaces you might need (driveway, sidewalk, street). And if you do not move it, that surface cannot be used until March or so. Look up "Sisyphus".

Hot feels nice sometimes, but 120 in the shade is brutal, I don't care if there's no humidity. When your shoe soles start to melt, you are in trouble. When it is real hot, you can remove clothes only to a certain point, and then what?

(I wonder: Do they close schools because it is too hot?)

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

(I wonder: Do they close schools because it is too hot?)

Yep. We've had both heat (is that what it's called?) days and snow days.

[jvriezen]

I believe we've had school closings due to heat. (not during build season though!)

And meeting offsite on a snow day is not allowed. The point is, it is too 'dangerous' to expect kids to travel. I'd not be surprised if technically, meeting 'online' via Skype or Google hangout is not allowed, given that the district rules were probably written assuming meetings meant travel.

That's why we are meeting on Sunday.

[Tem1514 Mentor]

Yep we have snow days and that's one thing but a whole of exam days.

I would take a snow day now and then but a whole week, oh well we just work around it.

[Alan Anderson]

The TechnoKats have a workshop that isn't part of the school. Years ago, a snow day during build season meant a chance to spend many hours working on the robot. Now, we're kept from doing that by the strictly enforced policy of cancelling all extracurricular activites, on-site and off-site, when school is closed for weather. We will sometimes consider opening up the shop for an unofficial evening work session if the weather improves during the day, but we don't want to put our supportive school in a bad situation in case there's an "incident".

[Steven Donow]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

There are advantages and disadvantages of both hot and cold weather. If it is cold, you can wear more clothing, or even burn some wood (hey, the stuff grows on trees!). But imagine getting several inches of snow, once a week, that you absolutely MUST move off any surfaces you might need (driveway, sidewalk, street). And if you do not move it, that surface cannot be used until March or so. Look up "Sisyphus".

Hot feels nice sometimes, but 120 in the shade is brutal, I don't care if there's no humidity. When your shoe soles start to melt, you are in trouble. When it is real hot, you can remove clothes only to a certain point, and then what?

(I wonder: Do they close schools because it is too hot?)

This happened in your very own state ~2 years ago, Don (and yes, our school's website did say it was due to 'extreme heat')

Snow days are always a major inconvenience, but it's an obstacle that you just need to always have a plan for/expect to happen eventually.

I just hope that the snow won't stop FIRST from releasing an encrypted manual tomorrow..

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by DevenStonow

This happened in your very own state ~2 years ago, Don (and yes, our school's website did say it was due to 'extreme heat')

In New Jersey? OMG.

And nice, getting the school board to bring up the team name like that....

[annabananapi]

Originally Posted by theawesome1730

For the most part we work all day on snow days. So for use snow days are a blessing of several more hours of build each day. We only got one during the season, but we're up to 4 with all the snow we've gotten the past few days

Our team does this as well. Since we don't work at our school, we meet at the shop like it's a Saturday!

[Anthony4004]

For 4004, we will see how the road are in the afternoon. If the road are decint then we will have an extra long meeting for those who can make it. Mainly it depends on the student's decision.