It's definitely prepare. The kids study for informational events, build things for those events, etc. They have one month till state (Feb 23) and will probably work 3-4 afternoons/week (plus some at home in the evening, like my guy who won't leave his robot at school for fear of sabotage). We will not win state; we all know that. The winners are the homeschool association that are sponsored by Boeing and coached by Boeing PhDs. They can work on it all the time. I don't begrudge them at all. I only wish we had some high powered coaches and more time during the day...for us, it's to get kids excited about science who never would have thought they could do that. It builds confidence, drive, interest, etc.
My DS 11 and DS 13 competed in regionals. This is exactly the kind of thing he loves. He could spend all day building robots or gliders or towers or trebuchets.
