"TheRealBicycleBuck" (therealbicyclebuck)
12/07/2015 at 09:02 • Filed to: None
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"TheRealBicycleBuck" (therealbicyclebuck)
12/07/2015 at 09:02 • Filed to: None | 2
| 8 |
We attended the state robotics championship this weekend (scored top ten, yay team!). It was held at the school picture below. With 60 teams qualifying, there were probably between 600 and 1,000 attendees with all of the supporting vehicles. Sure, some teams brought buses, but many depended on small caravans of parents to get to the event.
Even though we arrived early, the parking lots were full so I found a prime spot on the street (red dot in pic above). Really, my car was more in the ditch than in the street. I made sure to park near the end of the street, facing AWAY from from the school so we would have a quick getaway. With people parking on both sides of this narrow road, it was effectively reduced to a single lane.
I was not surprised when I found a traffic jam on the way out. What was surprising was the cause. A guy driving a U-Haul van had the worst timing and came face-to-face with the folks trying to leave the event.
The U-Haul driver’s position was clear - “If you think I am going to back this U-Haul down a narrow street full of cars, you are crazy!”
The argument from the attendees was also clear - “There are already fifteen cars jammed in behind us and there is nowhere to back up!”
I decided the best course of action was to get into my car and hightail it out of there before the traffic jam boxed my car in. There were police officers in the parking lot, so I’m sure they were called in to start managing the traffic.
The best part? Teaching my son the value of planning ahead when you are parking.
Chariotoflove
> TheRealBicycleBuck
12/07/2015 at 09:12 |
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Congrats on your score! (And getting out safely)
spanfucker retire bitch
> TheRealBicycleBuck
12/07/2015 at 09:16 |
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Which robotics? FLL? FTC?
I’m a mentor for FRC, and I know our season doesn’t begin until January.
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TheRealBicycleBuck
> spanfucker retire bitch
12/07/2015 at 09:29 |
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FLL. We will be gearing up for the WWII Museum robotics challenge in the spring.
Our team’s mentor is amazing. He uses a more Socratic method for problem solving and refuses to give them answers. He forces them to find potential solutions and try them out. The first bot was built by splitting the team in half and having them compete to solve one of the problems. The winning design was carried forward.
He also requires every member to be hands-on during the competition. Since only two kids are allowed at the table at a time, they each have tasks to complete, then tag out with the next pair. It was noted during the competition that we were the only team that had every child touch the bot.
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TheRealBicycleBuck
> Chariotoflove
12/07/2015 at 09:29 |
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Thanks!
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spanfucker retire bitch
> TheRealBicycleBuck
12/07/2015 at 09:51 |
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Yeah, student involvement is very important for us. Too many times you can see other FRC teams (with massive corporate budgets, since we all rely so much on sponsors) where the engineers built the entire robot.
We’ve had a couple years early on (when I was a student, so back in 2004 or so) where the engineers were doing too much, and then another year where the students were given too much leeway and not enough guidance, but the last 8+ years or so we’ve struck a good balance of mentor leadership and student activity.
It certainly isn’t easy. I’ve been the sole CAD mentor for the last 5 years, and I’m still learning how to strike the proper balance to properly teach the kids so I don’t know show them too much, but don’t leave them in the dark for too long and then they get frustrated.
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TheRealBicycleBuck
> spanfucker retire bitch
12/07/2015 at 10:01 |
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“...with massive corporate budgets, since we all rely so much on sponsors...”
We have one small local engineering firm providing sponsorship. Our biggest challenge is time. The team meets once a week for two hours. It’s a miracle that we placed as high as we did given the time and money resources for the other teams.
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spanfucker retire bitch
> TheRealBicycleBuck
12/07/2015 at 10:13 |
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Yeah, we have an annual operating budget of around $40-$60 thousand dollars every year, and we’re about mid-pack as far as financials are concerned. Most of the money goes to the cost for regionals which is like 10 grand per.
Every few regionals or so, we’ll see a team with like one mentor, 4 students and one or two local sponsors. I wish I could remember the team name - but it was a small team like that - that I saw a couple of years ago, where like 90% of their funding came from fundraising with the local community and almost no corporate sponsors.
I don’t know how they can operate like that, but I give them all the credit in the world for doing so. Even with a much smaller competition like FLL,
I’m very
impressed with what you guys were able to accomplish with so little available time. We meet like 6 days a week for 6+ hours and still struggle to meet our deadline.
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TheRealBicycleBuck
> spanfucker retire bitch
12/07/2015 at 10:23 |
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I take NO credit for this one. I make myself available to herd kids whether at competition and at meetings. We have one engineer and two teachers who dedicate their time to the club. Meetings are usually split with the two teachers working with the kids on the presentation and materials and our engineer working with two to four kids, guiding them through their tasks.
I need to give them more hugs.