Welcome to The Green Machine Website!
Welcome to the official website for Edina Robotics FIRST Team 1816 "The Green Machine!” This is the place to learn more about FIRST Robotics, our team's activities and history, the game challenge and competitions. We invite you to keep up with The Green Machine by checking out our calendar, participating in our forum, reading our ongoing team blog, and viewing our photos and videos!
Photos from the Minnesota North Star Regional are available at the Minnesota Regional Website.
Recent News 
Green Machine demonstrates FIRST Lunacy at Valleyfair
June 6, 2009 – Minnesota FIRST Robotics teams from Prior Lake and Edina set up shop at Valleyfair the last Saturday of May, demonstrating the FIRST Robotics games of the last two seasons. Team 1816-The Green Machine took turns with Team 2169-King TeC, demonstrating both the 2009 “Lunacy” and 2008 “Overdrive” games. Both teams also took turns answering questions from park visitors about the capabilities of their robots and about FIRST.
King TeC also brought their FIRST Tech team and ran exhibitions of their entry into the 2009 “Face Off” competition. High Tech Kids, which helps organize FIRST Lego League in Minnesota, also ran demonstrations of the 2009 “Climate Connections” game. In all, the purpose of the day was to showcase the different FIRST programs, beginning with elementary-school aged students all the way through high school.
Team 1816-The Green Machine will next appear at the Minnesota State Fair. FIRST teams from around Minnesota will run a daily competition at the Education Building.
Interested in learning more about FIRST Robotics? Visit www.usfirst.org or contact Ken Rosen, kr71@aol.com. For FIRST Tech Challenge: Joe Passofaro, mnftc@prodigy.net, or for FIRST Lego League, Holly Mezera, info@hightechkids.org.
Edina Robotics On Spring Tour
May 19, 2009 -- Community events and demonstrations, in Edina Public Schools and before team sponsors and supporters, are keeping Team 1816 busy this spring.
The Green Machine and Zeus made a featured appearance during the Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota’s showcase at the Mall of America in April. The daylong event was devoted to exhibits and demonstrations that involve students and adult mentors. Amy Zhang, incoming 2010 team captain, was featured in a news report about the Mentoring Partnership on WCCO TV. When Zeus demonstrated its dumping and scooping maneuvers, it attracted a large group of children and parents, many of whom were excited by the idea that high school students were able to design and build a competition-worthy robot. The Mentoring Partnership’s "Wired for 2020" is an engagement campaign aimed at getting more adults involved in mentoring. Visit www.wiredfor2020.com for more information.
The team next took its “practice” robot to the “Under the Big Top” spring carnival hosted by Edina’s Concord Elementary School. Being present at the carnival was important to the team as it strives to establish both a "Young Inventors' Club" and FIRST Lego League at the school. Students in Grades K – 5 were asked to put on safety glasses and try their hand at steering the robot through a short obstacle course. The chassis of the practice robot uses mecanum drive, allowing it to move horizontally in any direction without the chassis changing orientation. This robot was not built for a FIRST competition, but to give team members additional off-season practice in designing, building, and programming a robot.
Zeus even made a special guest appearance at Valley View Middle School for two all-school PepFest events. Team 1816 proudly shared the limelight with the Valley View FTC Team 2887-Bucket Brigade who showed off the bucket-waving capabilities of its 2009 robot, “Betty” (read all about The Bucket Brigade and Betty here). The team also will take Zeus into Valley View classrooms in late-May to help emphasize the real-world applications of “Project Lead the Way” curriculum.
The Green Machine will appear on May 30 at Valleyfair as part of a full day of FIRST Robotics exhibitions and demonstrations. We look forward to greeting you there!