Summer and Robotics?

[Jverdon]

So summer is just around the corner. Our team (Team Fusion 364) holds a summer robotics camp, we teach young kids about Robotics and other similar things. I look forward to this camp, because it gives me a chance to share what I know with young kids that share the same intrest. Out of this camp we have had a few kids join the team when they reach High School. We look at it as a great opportunity to get more involed, and have fun with each other during the summer. So I ask you does your team do anything during the summer, if so what?

[tiffany34990]

we are doing Girls Camp this year and FLL Camp.

Girls Camp teaches girls on our team how to use the machines. we'll be making a gear this year. last year it was a nut and bolt. this is the 2nd one.

FLL camp is new for our team. teaching the kids how to use the mindstorm kit and have a game goal for them to achieve by the end of the week.

[Beth Sweet]

Fundraising, fundraising, fundraising!!! Dear me, so much fundraising. We are bound and determined to have money this year!

[Koko Ed]

Hopefully lots of fundraising and site matinance(this time with someone besides just Ellery doing all the work).

[Keith Chester]

We run a completely student organized and ran Lego Camp. Similar to FLL, but with smaller designs by "steps." The small challenges lead up to big ones, allowing kids to design simple machines, and then combine different ideas from different challenges for more difficult challenges.

We will be working with rookie teams around the clock, trying to get these prospective teams excited and geared up for robotics.

We will give presentations to wherever it is needed, from summer programs for preschoolers to engineers.

And we shall compete wherever we can!

[nobrakes8]

Our team has the FLL come to the high school and do stuff in the same rooms we built the FRC robots. We host a FLL invitational in August at our town fair and I think they have like 24 or 25 teams usually show up.

We'll also be attending some off season events and doing work to raise money for abused children.

This summer I'm guessing we're going to do some new chasis ideas and fool around with different ideas. This year's chasis and gearbox was pretty good, but I'm guessing they're going to practice other deisgns, that way in January they could decide on a good base chasis and get right to work like we did this year with the KOP one (this is the first time the 1071 advisors could remember between their years on GUS and MAX that they had a chasis, gearbox, and electronics on a working robot 3 days after kick off).

Reasons why 1-4yr teams should do R&D during the summer (or doing drastic R&D in the off season events like team MAX) and the performance difference it made to my team:

2003 - we tipped every other match. (note - 2004 and 2005 we needed A LOT of help to tip)

2004 - we couldn't lock the arm to stay on the bar (note - 2005 how we came up with the ratchet design and our arm locks into place... not mention the reason why we became 2005 UTC regional champions).. We also have better ideas and theories we didn't test about how to climb step easier than what we did in 2004.

2005 - slow for the third year in a row and our "gripping" system of the arm had flaws (guess what team in 2006 won't be slow and will have hopefully a flawless gripping system on the arm?)

[Bcahn836]

My team was thinking about starting our own summer competition, but our lead mentor found one already running during the summer. So I made a few phone calls and now instead of 3 people mentoring a group of 25 kids, our team has added 8 more people myself included that will volunteer and help out at this event. The camp is for kids entering 7th through 9th grade and they will be building Lego mind storms. And the best part about it the 9th graders if they are interested enough they can join our team. We intend on doing a demo with our 2005 robot to show that if they have the interest we have a place for them to pursue it. And I hope we can help out in the years to come.

[Morenoh149]

we are doing Girls Camp this year and FLL Camp.

Girls Camp teaches girls on our team how to use the machines. we'll be making a gear this year. last year it was a nut and bolt. this is the 2nd one.

FLL camp is new for our team. teaching the kids how to use the mindstorm kit and have a game goal for them to achieve by the end of the week.
What do you mean by "making a gear" :confused:

and "last it was a nut and bolt" :confused:

[nobrakes8]

What do you mean by "making a gear" :confused:

and "last it was a nut and bolt" :confused:

You can make a gear really easily on a regular bridgeport milling machine (basic gear).. However for most teams who don't have a bunch of people working in a machine shop, or team that dosen't have the cutting tools and kids like me who could do it, it's easier (probably cheaper) to go to McMaster Carr..
They're refering to last year they taught the girls how to make nuts and bolts useing lathes and I'm assumeing a milling machine (could make a HEX shape on a surface grinder but I doubt they'd have kids useing those in a summer camp)

[KathieK]

I'm always amazed when I read about the dedication of the teams who host the summer camps, etc.! That's wonderful! How do you get the facility and funding to do that, and how do you get enough support from your team members (adults and students)? Most of our adults and students are working during the summer months or traveling with their families on vacation. And in the case of the adults, have already taken 6 or more days of vacation to travel with the team and want to spend their remaining time with their families. We meet year-round, we attend off-season events, plan our teambuilding weekend in the fall, plan educational activities we want to do in the fall with the students, do fundraising, do post-season self-assessment interviews, clean our facility.

[the_short1]

a good thing to do in summer: BUILD ANOTHER ROBOT :D

thats what our team is considering doing... the local rotary club aproached us and asked us to build a big R2D2 for their parada deal. . they have a float with whole starwars theme.. . and they want the r2d2 for the floor.. 8 weeks, 1k cash + old parts from previous (canadian first) robots.. :D sounds fun :D

[Joe J.]

We have lots of stuff to do over the summer Not summer but next weekend Our robot will be pulling an all nighter with our team at the local Relay For Life. Over the summer we continue to meet weekly with the small group, this summer we plan on experimenting with different arm designs, we also are overhauling our team handbook, we are planning fundraisers, we also will be at some local festivals.

[Cory]

I'll be finding a team to help out :p

[karinka13]

The Firebirds will be fundraising of course! Money issues this year=no fun. So we're working on getting new sponsors, still trying to get Starbucks and Wawa to help us out (our school is only like their biggest supporter), team car wash, tie a teacher to a tree for a dollar (ok, that was all mr. foell's idea), experimenting with our new material for our chassis next year ( :D )....

[Lisa Perez]

We (573) will be working on some prototypes, fundraising, communications, and perhaps organization of a Lego League team at my old school. If all goes as planned, I may also be working with my future team (830) on some designs.

Yet one more thing - I'll be getting that MWDU I keep talking about off on a good foot for the 2006 FIRST season (given that there is more interest).

[Morenoh149]

Me and our Team our intending on doing a lot this summer. Mount and get the camera working on the EDU bot (It has a TTL serial port no?! :p ). Make a two transmission VEX robot :ahh: !! Learn AutoCAD and perfect 3DS MAX.
Finish our team manual and admission requirements for new applicants to the team.

Learn how to make a new thread :(

And of course fund raising

Money money money money...............MONEY :D

great summer

P.S. anyone else done any of this before

[David Guzman]

Our team (The Techtigers) will also be doing some work during the summer. Most of the Juniors in our team (that includes me) will be taking a fundamentals of engineering class at FAU. We are also planning on prototyping a gear box, (just for the fun of it) and put it on our 2004 robot. Maybe if the opportunity presents we will do fundraiser, we don't have any plans yet but im sure we will do something to raise money. ;)

Dave

[wilshire]

yeah this summer my school is hoping to break away from 461 and start our own team. So this summer we will be fundraising till we are sick of asking for money, building a operational vex robot, getting a lab setup for the upcoming season, training all the rookies that we are recruiting, getting a website up, learning 3dsmax, and of course building a crate for our robot. Also I'll be swithbacking over to the 461 meetings this summer while we build an experimental crab if they get the funding for the project. Robotics is year round!

[bjimster1]

R&D, get sponsors, R&D, fund raise, R&D, get sponsors, R&D, fund raise, and recruit people

Me personally:
1. practice and hopefully master Inventor
2. practice driving the robot (driver-driver-coach-robot coordination)
3. get someone else to work on and master 3ds max
4. R&D
5. get sponsors
6. fund raise

[Jaine Perotti]

My team and I will be working on several different summer projects.

1. Extensive redesign and rebuild of our tetra arm.

We will spend the time between now and IRI redesigning our tetra arm. This year, we had many issues with it, including poor grip on the tetras and difficulty in controlling the arm. We did redesign our hook several times during the season, and we did seem to find a suitable passive hook design. By the end of the championships we could cap about 4 tetras per match, and our best was 5 in a match. However, we will try to come up with an entirely new design so that we can see what would have made our performance even better, and to give the newer members (and even veterans) a chance to learn new things.

2. Three Robotics Camps - "RoboCamp", and 2 sessions of "RoboCamp for Girls"

I, along with my mother, Mr. Lindsay our team coach, and another teacher from Seymour Smith Elementary School, are going to be offering a Lego robotics camp for boys and girls, and two sessions of Lego camp exclusively for girls. The regular robotics camp will be open to students in the Pine Plains, NY school district (Seymour Smith), as will one of the girl's camps. The other girls camp will be held for the Region One (Connecticut) school district. RoboCamp is offered to students in grades four through six. They will learn the basics of programming, building, and sensor integration, in just 5 days :ahh:. I have developed an extensive curriculum to teach the students these aspects of Lego robotics, and I am currently developing it further to make it an even better experience for the kids (and easier on the teacher). I am planning on taking records of the teaching techniques and activities that I utilize, so that I can hopefully publish the curriculum here on Chief Delphi as a white paper (or series of white papers)... sometime in the future. I use a combination of hands on activities (which I am trying to emphasize even more this year), direct lessons aided with Power Point, and "watch and follow" teaching - not sure how else to describe it, but basically you do something in front of the class (this is good for programming), and the students follow along by doing it themselves. I am also trying to allow for differentiated learning - which basically means that I am trying to allow the kids to move at their own pace. Naturally, within a class, you will find kids who will be stronger and grasp concepts faster than others, and then there will be a few who don't catch on as quickly. I want my teaching to allow for these differences, so that the quicker kids don't feel like they are being hindered, and the slower kids don't feel overwhelmed. It's tricky. I am also using many of the resources provided by the Carnegie Mellon "Robotics Academy" website. http://www.rec.ri.cmu.edu/education/ Check it out. There are great resources - Camps on a Disk, and Video Trainers that are excellent tools for teaching.

Hopefully, these camps will be a success.

3. Fundraising!

Everyone has fundraising to do!

We will be working on coordinating our summer fundraisers, scheduling to meet with new and returning sponsors to ask for money, and making those visits. Our official fundraising season started May 1st, and its time to get moving! As well as meeting with sponsors, our team often makes appearances at local community events, such as Canaan, CT's Railroad Days Celebration, and the Sharon Audubon Festival. We sell things like T-shirts, flying frogs, and flashing lights, as well as chances to drive the robot. We also occasionally do a raffle.


4. Boston University Design Competition

Myself, Dillon (CmptrGk), and two other members of our team are going to be participating in a mini-robotics competition (not affiliated with FIRST) at Boston University on June 4th. While this isn't really summer, more like late spring... it is an off season project of ours, and I thought I would mention it to let you all know about it, since it is pretty cool. More about it can be found at http://www.bu.edu/eng/design/


Good Luck to everyone in their summer endeavors!

-- Jaine

[Daniel_H]

Our summer is during the building season (and so does our vacations :D )

[krunch79prez]

My team puts on summer workshops on for 3rd-8th graders for fundraising. We also have car washes during the summer also.

[Jim Kosaski]

First, our team will have a banquet on May 9th to round out this year. I think we may try to join the OCCRA in the fall. We may even compete in a few repeat events over the summer. The only other thing we will try and do is just fundraise for next year's competitions.

[CourtneyB]

my team this year is going to host a robotics camp for i think ghi schol and junior highers. it will be awsome.

[Meyerman]

well we are gunna be doing some recruiting in a way we have 3 demo days at the elementary schools and then i think 2 middle school demos, we have a robotics night at the local minor league ball park there teams from around our area come and display their robots during the game, we will be making some prototype chassis and drives, we will be goin to PARC and Montclair Mayhem, we are gunna maybe try to get to IRI so we will be trying to keep busy this summer.

[Goober!!!]

well we are gunna be doing some recruiting in a way we have 3 demo days at the elementary schools and then i think 2 middle school demos, we have a robotics night at the local minor league ball park there teams from around our area come and display their robots during the game, we will be making some prototype chassis and drives, we will be goin to PARC and Montclair Mayhem, we are gunna maybe try to get to IRI so we will be trying to keep busy this summer.

Now talking about IRI who all is going becuase my team #1501 is planning to go!!!

[DCA Fan]

We fundraise and host robotics day camps of lego mindstorms, which, incidentally, is a nice way to both recruit kids and raise money at the same time :)

[Jay TenBrink]

1) Robotics banquet in June, complete with pig roast and mentor roast. We will also hold our 3rd annual Umbrella Race on where you sit in an inner tube and use a large umbrella to sail across Lake Shinagog.
2) IRI in July. Pretty much my favorite off season competition. This year we’ll be in the talent show. Move over Dean Simmons and the Kamons.
3) Work to form another team in our area.
4) This year’s off season technical project will be to design and build a robotic hand. We’ll visit a local hospital’s prosthetics lab and meet with a doctor who works in the field.
5) We’ll again be one of the host teams for the Kettering Kick-off in September.

[santosh]

-Talk to over 450 boy scouts
-Trying to start talking to girl scouts
-Hosting a week long robotics class ran through our county and club
-Car washes
-Try and get a robotics Merit Badge for scouts
-Talk to Boys an Girls club of America
-Have a week long FLL based camp for interested kids in our community (age doesn't matter)
-Fix our 1st and 2nd year robot
-Try and recruit many more people to join our club
-Ask for large corporate sponsorships
-Hook up with the YMCA and try and teach a robotics class there
-Talk to anyone that will listen to me about robotics
-Do Dean's homework
-Revive old dead teams in GeorgiaSpark FIRST interest in other Cities
-Keep the Peachtree Regional Alive
-Try and talk to teachers about Jr. Lego-League and the upcoming year
-Display our robot at major events at the Ga Dome and Congress Center
-Revise our fundraising packet
-Hopefully a small robotics convention for the public and local business members in which all the teams in our county bring all their robots from all their different competitions and put them on display and help spread th messag of robotics and the spirit of FIRST

[Dermot_135]

We here at team 135's head quarters, also have summer camps for kids! In fact, last summer's session was our best one yet! We got kids from around the area involved with the autodesk inventor programs, photoshop, and they also welded some of their own trophies! Its good to know that there are other teams out there spreading the goodness of robotics around!

[Dermot_135]

We here at team 135's head quarters, also have a summer camp for kids! In fact, last summer's session was our best one yet! We got kids from around the area involved with the autodesk inventor programs, photoshop, and they also welded some of their own trophies! Its good to know that there are other teams out there spreading the goodness of robotics around!

[blaskay16]

team 815 usually does some street fairs and loads of fundrasing

[Auveh]

We are going to chill together and gets people ready for next year. We will prolly do some fun "team-bonding" stuff! yeah!The teamwill also be organizing IRI! can't wait!

[Jeremiah H]

IRI! YEE HAW! Definitely the best off-season competition...also the only one I've ever been to ;) :o .
Other than that, we'll be teaching the newBs the basics of the tools, fundraising, fixing our bot for IRI, maybe some prototyping, and more fundraising.

Jay TenBrick- look out in that talent show, I hear there's this kid who is really good on the banjo...and another that's got a guitar, he got the judges' vote for best act last year, and that banjo kid was second... Dean Simmons and the Kamens couldn't hold a candle to 'em last year, and I'm bettin that it will be the same way this year...but I reckon I'm a little biased, that guitar-playin guy is on our team and that banjo kid is my little brother :cool: :p .

Seriously, IRI is great. we use it to teach our new members (we do recruiting in the spring) and to decide on next season's drive team. I hope y'all can make it, if ya do stop by the pit and say howdy, if I'm not there, I'm probably drivin the bot and will be back soon, or I'm outside givin bullwhip lessons, and then I shouldn't be too hard to find :yikes: . JH

[Qbranch]

YAY IRI!

and powertrains....

and robot camp....

.... :D

-Q

[SirLancelot]

I think we're planning on hosting a Lego camp for middle-school age kids in the community. We also are gonna take a crack at fund raising, possibly with some sort of VEX competition and a laptop/iPod raffle. What else...

The robot will show at the Chelsea Community Fair as well as the Ypsi Heritage Festival. We've realized it's a good way for the people in town to learn what's been going on lately. Most of them don't even have an inkling of what FIRST is.

Heh heh heh...research and development. We're gonna try to fix all the stuff that didn't work too well this past competition season, as well as (possibly) develop a transmission or an omnibot.

And lastly (but certainly not leastly) we get to teach a lot of people proper tool usage/maintenance. This past season, training started a little late...like, during the build. This led to all sorts of issues, like inexperienced people gouging the XYvice on our drill press, etc. We need these things to stop happening. It's bound to be a busy summer!

~Anna

[IA-Howitzer]

Team Goals: (Fundraising is a given)
1) Get a really good 3pt shooter for Cal Games in October!
2) Learn to CAD designs
3) Clean the entire room
4) Team bonding (unofficial, but its gonna include all our team members because our mentors have a problem with our team going paintballing "team 100".


Personal Summer Goals:
1) Do Deans hw (already worte the letter and got the address, now I just need to mail it)
2) Learn CAD <--- (Mandatory before we build things next year...)
3) Learn enough C to not have to use the easy C
4) Program the camera to sense blue, green and red
5) Learn to prgram the gyros...
6) Robotics Camp!!! @ Palo Alto Research Center!

[Donut]

Our simple plans;

Fundraise to no end. I want everyone in the club to see a competition other than just the AZ Regional at least once before they graduate.
Plan the year BEFORE it starts for once. Lay out guides on how to finally keep the 40 people who come the first meeting.

And if all that works, maybe a tiny bit of robot work on the side, but not much.

[987HighRoller]

Team 987 will be fundraising......like everyone else. We also are going to design new gearboxes and expiriment with new drivetrain designs. We will also make a whole new website and expiriment with new sensors with our 2005 robot.

[i_am_Doug]

What is this summer you are talking about? I thought FIRST was year round...