Old Dominion Heather Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 Our lives have turned into one big mass of LEGOs and robots and biomedical engineering. Anyone else? Who is counting down until regionals? We have 8 days here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Mungo Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 We did FLL the last two years, but not this year. Have fun! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Dominion Heather Posted October 29, 2010 Author Share Posted October 29, 2010 Be glad. The board this year is a killer, I think. Ironic, since the theme is biomedical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MSNative Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 I'm coaching a team and my mom is coaching TWO. This is by far the hardest board I've seen - that bad cell challenge has my team ripping their hair out. I love the research topic though. So much better than transportation, imo. Competition is Dec. 11 and I can't wait. I love seeing how other teams tackle the diff. challenges. However, Dec. 12 I am packing up the NXTs and getting every single last tiny little lego piece off my basement floor!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angela in ohio Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 My two girls are on a team with two other homeschool families. We are just getting into the crunch time. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snipsnsnailsx5 Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 They offer this at my boys' homeschool program. He's gone twice and liked it, however its difficult to pick him up from because of the time that he hasn't gone lately. I really wanted him involved though, and he wanted to go to. I may just try to figure out how to make it work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Dominion Heather Posted October 29, 2010 Author Share Posted October 29, 2010 How many hours do the teams spend working on the programming and project each week if you don't mind me asking? This is dh's first year coaching and I am the project coach. We have a mixed age team which bumps us up to the upper grade competition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lisabelle Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 This is our first year. Our homeschool resource center has a team and they meet on Wednesdays for a couple of hours. Ds was really looking forward to it, but so far it's too much science, not enough LEGO. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather in WI Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 This is our first year. Our team of four boys is getting together 2-4 hours at a time 2-4 times a week! While I see the intellectual and team-work benefit and our son loves the robotics aspect, we probably won't be doing it again. It is just too time consuming for our family. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Dominion Heather Posted October 29, 2010 Author Share Posted October 29, 2010 That is about where we are as well. The boys (six of them) are working 6-12 hours a week. At my house. I think we will probably do it again next year, but my ds is discouraged because their programming wiz buddy (who was 14yo) and was on the team last year moved last summer and now the programming is all on them. It has taken him some time to get used to the fact that they probably won't be going to state this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Dominion Heather Posted October 29, 2010 Author Share Posted October 29, 2010 I'm coaching a team and my mom is coaching TWO. This is by far the hardest board I've seen - that bad cell challenge has my team ripping their hair out. THIS makes me feel better! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Dominion Heather Posted October 29, 2010 Author Share Posted October 29, 2010 Crunch time is right! We have one week 'til regionals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angela in ohio Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 Crunch time is right! We have one week 'til regionals. Oh, wow, we have over a month. :001_smile: I can't imagine having regionals in a week! :willy_nilly: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Dominion Heather Posted October 29, 2010 Author Share Posted October 29, 2010 That is SO not fair! ; ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 My son is on a team. We have 5 weeks until regionals here.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Dominion Heather Posted October 29, 2010 Author Share Posted October 29, 2010 Okay... I am starting to see why ds is so stressed about this. We have a regional competition and then the top teams from that go on to the state competition which is the first weekend in December, I think... a two day affair. Those of you who have regionals in a month, how long until your state competion after that? I am wondering why they don't standardize the dates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H.S. Burrow Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 This is our first year. Our team of four boys is getting together 2-4 hours at a time 2-4 times a week! While I see the intellectual and team-work benefit and our son loves the robotics aspect, we probably won't be doing it again. It is just too time consuming for our family. This is also our first year and where we are as well, except we meet 2-3 times per week for 3 hours each time. I was fine with that - meetings I can handle - but I didn't realize how much time my son would have to spend working on this at home! :001_huh: Each meeting he has new "homework" to finish before the next meeting! I'm trying to fit school in around legos and I'm not liking it so much. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lisabelle Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 I think we our Regionals are 12/4 with State on 12/11. Our homeschool resource center has, I think, 5 teams. There's one that's all girls and the others are all boys. From what I've seen, I think the girls team will do well. It's been interesting to watch how much of an easier time they've had deciding on their project and working well together. On all of the boy teams, each of the boys wanted *his* ideas to be the ones used and a good two weeks were wasted sorting that out. I'm not expecting much from ds's team, but I'm very interested to see how the girls do. I was not a fan of the segregation of teams. But I know there's been a fair amount of research that shows that girls do much better in math and science when they are in a same-sex environment. So I'll be really interested to see how this whole thing plays out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MSNative Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 We only spend 2 hours a week in team time here. That doesn't include homework - which varies. We also have a few weekend 3 hour sessions throughout the season. We have two more planned before competition. We still have lots of challenges to program, but thankfully our presentation is 90% done. Funny that you mentioned the segregated teams. My mom has one all girl team and one mixed team. The mixed team is far ahead of the girl team. Way too much time on the girl team spent chatting. ;) It all depends on the kids. The schedule seems really early this year - especially for robotics heavy states. Last year our competition was a week before Christmas. I could sure use those weeks now!!! Don't know why they changed the schedule. I know that some states just have a LOT of robotics teams and I guess that was just how they could accomodate them all. Just a guess. I'd love to hear the real reason. Anyone going to int'l competition this year? We went to ATL last year and it was amazing!! My two year old even had a good time. If you're feeling burned out, that is the place to go get recharged. Seeing the fantastic kids, great attitudes and amazing science there will fire you up again. Good luck to all of you with early regionals!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angela in ohio Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 Okay... I am starting to see why ds is so stressed about this. We have a regional competition and then the top teams from that go on to the state competition which is the first weekend in December, I think... a two day affair. Those of you who have regionals in a month, how long until your state competion after that? I am wondering why they don't standardize the dates. Regionals are early December (I can't remember if it's the first or second Saturday,) and we went to state in mid-January (I say "we," but I had absolutely nothing to do with it. :D) I'm majoring in secondary ed right now with concentrations in math, computer science, and possibly physics. Once I start teaching, I plan to have Lego leagues and engineering contestants, and all sorts of good things. :) I can't wait (especially to recruit girls to the teams.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamee Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 What is this? I've never heard of it.:confused: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Dominion Heather Posted October 30, 2010 Author Share Posted October 30, 2010 What is this? I've never heard of it.:confused: Here's a link First Lego League - USA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamee Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 That looks like a lot of fun. I wonder of DoDDS has teams, I didn't see anything for Japan. Hmmmm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VBoulden Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 We are in a Lego club this year! Here are some blog posts about it... http://www.veronicaboulden.com/2010/10/norah-had-her-first-lego-club-meeting.html http://www.veronicaboulden.com/2010/10/norah-was-featured-on-her-lego-clubs.html My daughter's only six and most of the other kids in the group are still pretty young, too, so we don't do anything competitive.... yet. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TechWife Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 Anyone else? Who is counting down until regionals? We have 8 days here. This is our fifth year! In past years, both my husband and I were coaching and the house was chaos. This year, just my dh is coaching (along with two other adults) so the home atmosphere is a lot calmer! This year's board is hard. 36 days to regionals (Dec. 4, 2010 - 90 days to state (Jan. 29, 2011). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TechWife Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 This is our first year. Our homeschool resource center has a team and they meet on Wednesdays for a couple of hours. Ds was really looking forward to it, but so far it's too much science, not enough LEGO. :) A lot of people are surprised that it's not about the LEGO. It's about the engineering design process as a whole as well as the research component. LEGO is just the tool used to get there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 Our state is the beginning of January.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TechWife Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 We have really worked hard to set boundaries with our team - it can be all consuming if we don't watch. Last year (our fourth year) we happened to hit on a schedule that worked - one weeknight for 3 hours and then Saturday morning for 3 hours. The week before tournament is all hands on deck, every night. The boys had a fantastic year last year (320 point runs), so it seems we have struck a balance. This year regionals are 11 weeks earlier than last year, so I am not sure how they will do with the "lost" time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TechWife Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 That's interesting. There are no graded competitions here. Just regionals and then state. This year there are more teams in our region than there were in our entire state our first year. The program has had amazing growth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TechWife Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 Those of you who have regionals in a month, how long until your state competion after that? I am wondering why they don't standardize the dates. Each state partner sets their own dates. There have to be 12 weeks between the challenge release date & the first tournament, but as far as I know the only deadline for the end date is the entry deadline for The World Festival. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Dominion Heather Posted October 30, 2010 Author Share Posted October 30, 2010 Have you got a source for that? And by first tournament, do you mean a regional competition or a state competition? I'd like to be able to show that info to our regional people. Maybe next year we can push back the regional competition. I do think that having it so early puts the kids at a disadvantage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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