Outreach
Whether it’s mentoring other FIRST Robotics teams, introducing the FIRST Robotics program to new schools and students, or making presentations to the community-at-large, outreach is a vital component of the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) program. Creating and participating in outreach events is expected of every FRC team and FRC team member and The Green Machine is no exception. Team 1816 recognizes that outreach helps further the FIRST mission of creating opportunities for students interested in careers in technology, science, math, and engineering. Throughout the year, Team 1816 participates in outreach events so this section will be regularly updated with reports on those activities.
The importance of outreach in the FIRST programis also evident in the hierarchy of awards at each regional competition tournament as well as the Championship event. The Chairman’s Award, the most prestigious award a team can earn, stems not from being on the winning alliance at a competition, but by reaching out beyond building a robot to the community-at-large. This honor is one that every FIRST team strives for because the team that wins it is recognized as having done the most to spread the ideals and goals of FIRST, by inspiring young people to become leaders in science and technology.
Throughout the year, our team will continue to update these pages with news of its outreach activities.
Photos of many of these events can be found in our photo galleries.
FIRST Tech Gains Traction At Valley View Middle School
November 22, 2008 -- Take the square root of FRC, and you’ll end up with the newest addition to the FIRST family, the FIRST Tech Challenge program. Renamed and introduced in 2007, FTC provides all of the challenges of the FIRST Robotics Competition, but on a smaller and more accessible scale. Valley View Middle School, Edina, has taken up the FIRST Tech Challenge by supporting a team of students grades 7 – 9, and mentored by Team 1816.
FRC mentors Sophie B, Matt H, and Andrew P. are working with up to eleven students each week, meeting every Tuesday and Saturday to build their Tech robot, nicknamed “Betty.” The game this year, “Face Off!”, requires robots to acquire hockey pucks from half-pipe racks, and then dump them into center goals. Just like FRC, the matches have both autonomous and teleoperated modes, although teams compete in alliances of two instead of FRC’s three (read more about FTC here).
As the season unfolds, it has been exciting to see this rookie team progressing in their development, although the road has not been without difficulty. Having built the chassis, the team realized that it would need to be reconfigured to accommodate the motors. The other major problem had to do with the initial ramp. Specifically, at the start of the match, one robot needs to start at the top of a ramp. The issue arose when the team realized that their robot did not have enough clearance to operate properly. The robot is being disassembled – and then reassembled -- so the team can account for the known problems. At the same time, Tech team programmers will meet with mentors from Team 1816 to write their code in LabView. One more similarity to the FRC program is the strict timeline to build. Betty needs to be up and running before its FRC mentors turn their attention to their own six-week build. The Tech team looks forward to a “real” competition in March 2009!
Team 1816 Helps Out “The NXT Generation”
In continuing FIRST’s expectation that teams will help inspire others, Team 1816 is once again mentoring a FIRST Lego League (FLL) team at The Works Museum, located in the Edina Community Center. This is the second year that this particular team has been in place, and it has grown from three to eight members in just one year. The team, recently deemed “The NXT Generation” by the kids, meets twice a week: Thursdays and Saturdays.
Every year the FLL program has a theme that the year’s challenge is built around, and this year the theme is Climate Connections. Specifically, the theme deals with the impacts of climate change on the lives of the people here on Earth. The purpose is to raise awareness of the damage being inflicted on the environment and how it will affect the average person, as well as to allow the kids to study patterns of cyclical climate change in conjunction with human influence. As always, the robot competition features missions based on the theme, as well as a research project (visit www.usfirst.org/community/fll for information). The research project requires the students to find the climate and change of the climate of their local environment, a parallel place of the same climate, the problem that ensues from this climate change, and what you can do to fix it.
Team 1816 has contributed a couple of their members to help mentor. Just as an FRC mentor helps a student on an FRC team, the 1816 student mentors aid the younger Lego Leaguers whenever their help is needed, whether that be programming, building, researching, or rehearsing for the presentation. They are present for the kids to rely on in times of confusion and need, yet the student mentors do not build, program, research, or present for the kids. They are only there to help the younger students succeed in their endeavor by acting as guides, as the mentors all have previous experiences in FIRST-related competitions. From the release of the missions until the last competition, the student mentors are committed to helping aid the FLL team. With patience, enthusiasm, and some experience, student mentors are able to share their love for science and technology and inspire a future generation of gracious professionals!
The Green Machine Goes To Girl Scout Camp
Over the summer, the Edina Robotics FIRST Team 1816 had the opportunity to send representatives to mentor Girl Scouts during a camp devoted to science, technology and robotics. Three team members, Matt H., Sophie B., and Dan P. spent three days offering technical assistance to the middle-school-aged campers as they participated in a week of robotics-based explorations at the camp based in Fridley, Minn. During their time at camp, the scouts learned the basic mechanical aspects needed to construct a Lego robot. Along with the mechanical aspects, the girls were also introduced to basic programming in order to control their robots. The Edina Robotics Team is very pleased to have had the opportunity to share its knowledge of robotics and to introduce more of our community to the science and math behind robotics. The team also hopes that more Girl Scouts will become involved with FIRST Robotics. FIRST recently announced a partnership with the Girl Scouts of the USA, including a new participation patch to be awarded to Girl Scouts who take part in FIRST tournaments and competitions. Learn more at http://www.usfirst.org/who/content.aspx?id=10628.
Bakken Goes Green for Aquatennial
August 4, 2008 -- The Green Machine went green again with another trip to The Bakken during the Minneapolis Aquatennial Celebration, July 23-24. This time, members of Team 1816 were in charge of The Bakken’s “Bike VIP Zone,” checking in and keeping track of bicycles of all sorts during “Bike to The Bakken Day.” Next day, team members helped collect cans for recycling. Both of these events were part of the annual “Ten Best Days of Summer” Aquatennial Celebration. For more about The Bakken and upcoming events, click http://www.thebakken.org/events/events.htm; for the Aquatennial, click http://www.aquatennial.com.
“Minnesota Madness” Adds Robot Cool to Hot Summer
July 30, 2008 – Blowing the dust off robots that haven’t seen action since the end of the FIRST Overdrive competitions last spring, several metro-area FIRST Robotics teams came together for an off-season event dubbed “Minnesota Madness.” Members of The Green Machine gathered at Eagan High School, along with Teams 2177-The Robettes, Team 2129-Ultraviolet, Team 2220-Blue Twilight, and Team 2264-The Trojans, for a full day of friendly off-season competition on July 22.
Much of the morning was devoted to trouble-shooting robots and practicing on the field, while the afternoon was spent running two-on-two matches. At the end of the day, The Green Machine’s Zerkit emerged undefeated! In fact, team members were pleased that some last minute adjustments actually helped the robot run better than it had during the regular season.
Edina Robotics Team 1816 would like to thank Team 2264-The Trojans, Wayzata, for their help planning this “mini-regional” event, as well as Team 2220-Blue Twilight, Eagan, for the use of their high school and playing field. The day was a great success and we look forward to holding more such events in the coming year!
Green Machine Members Help Make a Difference at U.S. Women’s Open
July 1, 2008 -- More than 114,000 spectators flocked to the golf greens for the U.S. Women’s Open at Edina’s Interlachen Country Club June 23-29, 2008, and members of Team 1816 were right in the center of the action. In keeping with the team’s resolution to “go green” this coming year, several members of the team volunteered their time to help with recycling at the tournament. This initiative, led by the Recycling Association of Minnesota, deployed volunteers to collect recyclables, compost, and trash, as well as help keep the grounds clean. Indeed, if everything at the event has gone off as planned, the Recycling Association and their many volunteers will have made the event the first ever, “zero-waste” U.S. Women’s Open! To learn more, visit the association’s website at http://www.recycleminnesota.org/.
The Green Machine Gets its Hands all Green
June 22, 2008 -- The Green Machine joined the Green Thumb Crew at The Bakken Museum, Minneapolis, Minn., for an evening of gardening and landscaping duties. Well slathered in sunscreen and bug spray, 11 team members worked in the gardens and surrounding grounds, helping to make the immediate environment around The Bakken a much greener and tidier place. Using shovels, trowels, and rakes, we cleared brush and weeded garden beds, including pulling out giant invasive weeds. The team cooled off afterwards with shakes at the Convention Grill. Find out more about The Bakken and its mission of science education at their website.
Reaching out to FRC Teams at Home and Around the World
This season, our FIRST Robotics team has helped rookie and second-year teams primarily through the team’s online Forum and via email. Team from around Minnesota that have contacted The Green Machine for information and guidance include Team 2450, The Raiderbots of Cretin-Derham Hall High School, St. Paul; Team 2470, Bloomington-Jefferson High School, Bloomington; Team 2502, Eden Prairie High School, Eden Prairie, and Team 2498, The Bearbots of Blake High School, Minneapolis.
We also have been in contact with an FRC Team in Israel. Early in the 2008 season, Team 2230, Zcharia’s Angels, Herzliya, Israel, contacted Team 1816 via YouTube, having accessed our team’s competition and marketing videos on that website. The Green Machine was already familiar to Team 2230. The Green Machine was part of an alliance that competed successfully against another Israeli FRC team, Team 1574-Miscar, Misgav, Israel, during the Newton Division semi-finals at the 2007 Championship Event. Nir, of Team 2230, requested permission to translate our team’s 2007-08 marketing video into Hebrew as an example both of how FIRST can impact the lives of today’s high school students and as an example of how to market a FIRST Robotics team to potential corporate sponsors. Not only did Nir, the team’s contact, translate and add Hebrew subtitles to our team’s marketing video, he emailed it back to us! View the video.
FLL Mentoring
The SpazBots
Mentoring elementary or middle-school-aged kids is not exactly an easy job, but it’s a job eagerly sought by FRC team members when robotics are involved! The Green Machine this season welcomed several veterans of FIRST Lego League, and a handful of these rookie FRC members turned right around and mentored two Edina, Minn., rookie FLL teams. The Bright Lights, a three-student team hosted by The Works Museum, and The Spazbots, a team composed of eight 7th grade students at South View Middle School, Edina, were mentored from the early organizational meetings upward through regional and state competitions. This year’s FLL theme was “Power Puzzle.” The goal of the 12-mission contest was to make kids aware of the energy crisis in the world and challenge them to come up with ideas to help solve the problem.
Education Day Open House!
The Green Machine thanks Edina High School teachers, administrators, staff, as well as friends and the many young robotics enthusiasts who visited with the team during its second-annual “Edina Robotics Education Day,” Saturday, Jan. 26. Occurring right in the middle of the six-week build season, this day was a perfect chance for visitors to get a behind-the-scenes glimpse at what building a FIRST robot is really about. This year’s event included a scale mock-up of a key element of FIRST Overdrive: “The Overpass,” a bridge that will stand six-and a-half feet off the competition racetrack. The overpass will be used by robot alliances to either place Trackballs, which are 40” in diameter, 7.3 pounds each, for bonus points, or will need to carefully maneuver Trackballs underneath the overpass while avoiding being hit by a falling Trackball. The team’s 2007 and 2006 competition robots were on display along with past year’s competition videos. These made for good compare/contrast scenarios for team members, who guided visitors through the intricacies of how each year’s robot is carefully crafted to meet the current year’s game challenge. This year, the team’s new animation subteam demonstrated samples of various objections rendered using Autodesk’s 3d Studio Max animation program, while members of the computer-aided design (CAD) subteam showed various parts and views of our 2008 robot-in-process. The day was an informative, exciting snapshot into the middle of FIRST Overdrive!
Edina Robotics Gives a Lift to Donors Attending Education Fund Event
Edina Robotics FIRST Team 1816, The Green Machine, provided demonstrations of its 2007 competition robot and promoted the upcoming FIRST Minnesota Regional to guests attending the “Show and Tell Donor Lunch Program” hosted by the Edina Education Fund. Before the luncheon/fundraiser at Edina High School on Monday, the more than 300 attendees were able to see for themselves how their donations have tremendously affected the lives of Edina students, from kindergarten “prop boxes,” to the EHS Breakfast Book Club, to Edina Robotics itself! In 2006 and 2007, The Green Machine received two generous seed grants from the Edina Education Fund, which helped get the team up and running. The 2007 grant also underwrote the team’s participation in “The Fuel Cell Competition,” a pilot test of hydrogen fuel cells and applicability to robotics. Team members demonstrated the pneumatic-lifting capabilities of the 2007 competition robot by lifting guests on its dual-ramp system; answered questions about the FIRST Robotics competition, and explained why a giant, red, 40-inch, eight-pound “Trackball” was being rolled around the hallways of Edina High School.
For more information about the luncheon and the Edina Education Fund, click here.
Gift Wrapping At Barnes & Noble
During the month of December, The Green Machine participated in a series of fundraisers at Barnes & Noble’s Edina store. On December 2nd and 18th, a number of team members and parents helped gift-wrap items for customers, with all tips raised for this service going to the team. Members Sophie B., Anna W., Evan S., Dan P. and Josh P. did the wrapping early in the month, while several parents of Green Machine members stepped up and did even more on the 18th. Although the team earned just a little more than a hundred dollars, the fundraising was about more than just the money. Through gift-wrapping, team members and parents were able to meet and talk to a large number of community members, and answer questions about FIRST and our team. Community outreach, including fundraisers such as these, provide opportunities for FIRST teams to stay in touch with the community and build awareness. We especially liked the chance to talk about our team, the upcoming FIRST Minnesota Regional, and about the FIRST program overall.
Helping Encourage Future Scientists at Cornelia Elementary School’s Science Fair
Science fairs are an important part of learning in many elementary schools, and the Cornelia Elementary School Science Fair on November 15th was no exception. Twenty-one Cornelia students in kindergarten through the fifth grade participated in the optional event, demonstrating and explaining their experiments and studies to dozens of visitors who came to view their exhibits. Team 1816 participants Sophie B., Matt H., Ryan I-L, and Dan P. were present that evening as “Senior Scientists.” Each robotics team member evaluated students on their application and use of the scientific method, the clarity of their presentation, and the knowledge obtained by the student in doing the experiment. After asking students questions about their presentations and giving them an evaluation sheet, the Cornelia students were each presented with a medal for their outstanding work. Attendees viewed exhibits that ranged from how salt helped freeze ice cream to Newton’s third law of motion. Congratulations to all of the Cornelia participants for doing such a great job!
Greeting Our Community During the Homecoming Parade
Edina High School’s Homecoming Parade is one of the highlights of the high school community’s homecoming weekend. Our Robotics truck-float was included among other school groups, including one promoting West Side Story, the fall musical from Thespians, as well as a Trojan Horse and a pirate ship. Our 2007 robot, Zarthan, sat stationary in the bed of the truck, showing off its spiffy metal ramps. Rookie team members and seasoned veterans alike waved to the crowds lining both sides of the parade route, handing out candy to lucky children, and a few adults.
Robot Demo at Edina Schools’ East Campus Open House
In early October, our robotics team demonstrated the capabilities of its 2007 competition robot during the Edina School District’s Open House at the East Campus. The event was designed to showcase the newly renovated and expanded facilities at two schools, Normandale Elementary School and South View Middle School, as well as the Edina Community Center and City of Edina gymnasiums. Team co-captains David C. and Dan P. gave a short presentation to visitors at Normandale Elementary School, including a demonstration of the robot’s dual-ramp system. The robot then was packed up and ferried across the parking lot to South View Middle School, where visitors were able to inspect the robot and ask questions of team members present. Visitors also were able to page through the photo album submitted by the team for the 2007 Chairman’s Award competition; watch team-produced videos of the robot in action, and learn about FIRST Robotics. We even convinced Bruce Locklear, the new principal of Edina High School, to sit on a ramp and enjoy being lifted by the robot!
Helping Our World through Feed My Starving Children
Feed My Starving Children is a non-profit organization that ships food to children in third-world countries. Team 1816 went to one of their warehouses and filled and packaged food bags filled with rice, soy, vitamins, and dehydrated vegetables. Team members decided to mix things up a bit and get to know one-another, and the bonding was inevitable. Every time a table would fill a box with 36 bags of the required provisions, a team member would call it off, with resounding cheers. Our team packaged about 40 boxes of food to be shipped to the starving children all over the world.