do you guys attend classes regularly during the time between kickoff and shipment?

[Nimmy]

well I was wondering how it is in other school considering the amount of time
needed to invest in the FIRST project, I know I'm at the project every day (Sunday-Thursday) from around 4:30PM to anywhere between 1 and 7AM (depending on our mentor since, for insurance reasons, we have to stay with a supervising teacher adult)

the school is alright with us missing the classes (being a senior I only have about 4 different ones) and even gives the FIRST students special TEST dates
so we can study after the project is over
is this like that in all schools?

[oaktown1188]

wow your school is kind of awesome.

FIRST at our schools isnt well known and very few teachers will even let us make up work when we miss school for say competitions. they dont let us turn in homework late even if we're at school working for 6 hours.

[Ashley Christine]

I am a Junior in highschool, and I am getting prepared to go to Clarkson NEXT YEAR.
I almost HAVE to be in class everyday, otherwise I will get behind. We have block scheduling at my school, miss a day and you miss a lot. I also do not have any free periods. My schedule is fully loaded. It is a huge pain with FIRST and all.

Especially because I also WORK Mondays, Fridays and Sundays at a local restaurant.

And I have all these college deadlines and trying to find scholarships. I am nearly going crazy!

Last night I went to robotics around 6:00 and didnt get home until around 12:30 [Mind you, I commute because I go to help the Penfield Robotics Team, which is 30 min away.]

But, even though I get 3-5 hours of sleep a night and struggle to get all my homework in on time. I manage. And well, robotics for me has definately been worth all the stress

I cant wait for a break though. I have school off the week of ship. And I took off of work, so I will have a nice 5 days to relax.

[Nimmy]

wow how do you do it? seriously all I have done the past month was go to FIRST go to sleep and then go to FIRST, I missed FIRST I think only 2 times
once because we all had our FINALS in literature (yeha, one and half day of studying was all I got), yay no more literature =)
and the other day off was because I had to go do some psycho-analitic tests or something for the army...

I really don't understand how you do it with only 3 hours of sleep, your a superwomen

[d.courtney]

no mercy at our school... its always fun to be working till say 2 in the morning then have 2.5 hours sleep before needing to do my chores... it is the very unfortunate thing of living on a farm, being on robotics, and having a school that doesn't grasp the size of the project.

[DjAlamose]

I would never miss class now that I’m paying for it. BUT! Right now I’m on a co-op term (working and not at school) so I can get a few days off for comps but that’s about it (actually me working is considered class by my school). I planned it that way Back when I was in High School at old TTA about a fourth of our school was on first so we had some exceptions but most of the time it was just like any other day. Near the end of the build however teacher noticed we were very tired and gave a few of devoted 2am-ers slack. But right now I like my schedule; I go to work get out at 3:30 head straight for my sponsor's building and work on robots till 10-11.

[Courtneyb1023]

I am in the same boat as Albie. I am doing a co-op for school and do not attend classes this term. However, my co-op and where I currently live is more than an hour from where my team is located. Because of this, I can usually only come down on weekends and a couple times during the week. I wish that I could help more, especially because for the last 3 years, I was there everyday.

[Nimmy]

your sponsor building? our lab and workshop are in the school, so some of us just sleep a few hours, wake up and go to class (only problem is showers, luckily typing dosent make you sweat much)

how do you build your robot by working only 4 hours a day?
the least I was this year was 7 hours or so

[Lisa Perez]

I definitely attend classes regularly during build season. Even though attendance isn't taken for most of my classes, it is important that I go because if I don't, it is guaranteed that I will miss plenty of material.

During high school, my school required that we were present at the day's worth of classes. If we weren't, we were by no means allowed to attend robotics after school; doing so would merit a detention. In the case that we had a competition, we had to talk to each of our teachers about possible extensions.

It's hard to focus on something other than FIRST during the build season, but I always try to keep in mind that school, graduating with good grades, and getting a good job are my priorities. After all, FIRST is always going to be around. My chance to pull off a certain grade in a class? That only comes by once.

[Shadow_Wolf]

I attend my classes at my home school, since our FIRST team is based out of Erie 1 BOCES-Harkness center. But at Harkness, the FIRST project is considered course work basically, so I do programming during that time.

[DjAlamose]

Originally Posted by Nimmy

How do you build your robot by working only 4 hours a day?
the least I was this year was 7 hours or so

We only have meetings regularly scheduled on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The total number of hours for those is ten. But that doesn't mean we aren't there more often. These are the required meetings and there is plenty to do even when your not there. In the beginning of the build we usually only have the required meetings but near the end we are there every day. There is only so much you can do in a group and some of the best work is done when it is done by each person so that way you can combine ideas and designs to form even something better. But that aside if you do your scheduling right then you should have no problem with only meeting 3 hrs a day.

[Tytus Gerrish]

Beause of first i have a full day. i go to school in the mornings i go to work in the afternoon and i go to the shop at night and on the weekends. if i didnt have first i would be much further ahead in school thats for shure

[Freddy Schurr]

Yeah, with college classes, mentoring Team 204, and FIRST volunteering and trying to find a new job, it is pretty stressful but enjoyable. We work from Mon to Thurs 2:30 to 6:30 and the last 3 weeks of build season, we come in on Sat from 9:00 to 2:00. But like I tell my students and even myself sometimes, classes and maintain good grades are more important than trying to figure out why a CIM motor goes in a wrong direction. You need to stay on top of your classes or you will be back as a returning freshman on next year's team.

[Kim Masi]

I attend 6 classes a day but i take 8 classes at a time. Its been so stressful the last few weeks with quizzes, tests and other various essays and projects. I am also going for my gold award in Girl Scouts, so that takes a few hours out of my week too. Thank goodness for vacation next week...

and think of it this way, build season is heading into its final two weekends...almost there you guys!

[Greg Needel]

I am in the same boat as other in this thread... I am on co-op working instead of classes. I am very lucky that my workplace knows all about FIRST and supports it so i can take time off for working with a team and going to competitions. I learned my early years in college that the only thing you get from doing college and classes is a low GPA.