It might just be too heavy/large of an arm for it to move at that gear ratio… friction could also be playing into your situation here. If the arm is to heavy, decrease the gear ratio (make the size difference between the gears smaller) — not necessarily by a lot to give the mechanism more torque (it will slow it down though).
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I have noticed this happening with several of my students and their builds as well. Have one dead motor that I need to replace, and students are noticing that some of their motors get really hot when used. Followed the build directions, and just weird that this is happening to more than one group.
Looks like the robot may not have been built quite the same as instructions, check spacers and gears for the arm. Make sure the arm rubber bands are installed correctly. When using the internal drive program you can check current used by the arm motor, if it is high (say > 0.5A) that is probably the cause. Usually an IQ motor can hold the arm for an extended period of time if the clawbot is correctly built.
Current will vary, may be higher than shown below but it will often stabilize near 0 after a few seconds when stopped if rubber banding is correctly done.
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