Our team (1717, D'Penguineers) participates in FIRST as the senior class and capstone project of the Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy (DPEA), a track of classes within the Santa Barbara-area public school Dos Pueblos. The DPEA is a 4-year program with freshmen through seniors, who take engineering, physics and computer science courses in addition to, or in place of, regular high school courses.
Seniors take a class that is dedicated to FIRST Robotics, thus there is a limit on the number of students on the team (32). Due to very high demand for the DPEA within our high school, we have had to start an application and interview process for 8th graders to enter as 9th graders. They then take 3 years of courses before participating in FIRST their senior year.
Once students are seniors, they run the DPEA and robotics class as a business, with students taking auxiliary business roles, in addition to those in engineering. For example, students work in public relations, media, web design, uniforms, school communication, etc.
We don't have students "sell" their ideas to a board during the build season, but we do have design review meetings, since thirty heads are always better than one. We have found that the application process helps to find qualified students, but that offering courses leading up to robotics also greatly increases student preparation for the season.
For more information about our academy and team, you can visit our website,
www.dpengineering.org.
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2008 Website Excellence Award
2008 Galileo Division Finalist, huge thanks to Teams
254 and
384!
2008 Galileo Division: 2nd ranked team
2008 Los Angeles Winner, huge thanks to Teams
330 and
980!
2008 Los Angeles Delphi "Driving Tomorrow's Technology" Award winner
2008 San Diego Winner, huge thanks to Teams
968 and
294!
2008 San Diego Delphi "Driving Tomorrow's Technology" Award winner
Team Website