At tonights robotics meeting I signed up to go to our H.S. 8th grade orientation (this one focuses on getting kids to come to the WHS instead of area private schools). Turns out I was the only one who signed up. After much convincing I got one other person to help me out. Right now the plan is to just Bring the robot to show it off but I feel like theres more that we could do.
Thats where I need your help. I need some quick easy (I have 22 hours until this presentation, 7 of which I’m in school) ideas to do. I was thinking about bringing my laptop with some match videos cued up but could defiantly use some more.
Also I have full access to our shop so anything that you think would be there is not out of the question.
Hey! I pretty much ran our 8th grade night, so I can let you know what we did.
At our table, we had some info packets in folders and a laptop playing random videos from all 3 years (This years animation, shop videos, match videos from the blue alliance, ect…).
As well as that, we boxed off a big area with tables and put the robot and a soccer net inside, with the controls on one of the tables, and let the kids drive it around. (Make sure you have bumpers on!)
Other then that, thats about it. Just make sure the person at the info table knows what he/she is talking about, and points them to the “HEY, drive a robot!” station.
We also sold hexbugs, but I dunno if you have them . They make a good demonstration at the info table.
First you have to get the kids close. Then make them touch the robot while you describe how it brings luck to the team and how students built and drive the robot. Then pick a couple of kids from the crowd and make them drive it. There is nothing like driving the robot to get kids excited. The parents will follow.
If letting other people drive the robot is out of the question (some drive systems aren’t user-friendly), you can always drive the robot around and have it interact with people.
At our schools club night we brought out the 2009 'bot and had it shoot Lunacy balls at random passerby. This was safe because there was virtually no propulsion (with our design the balls would shoot out less than a foot on their own power) and the balls were soft. If you decide to do something like that, make sure you have a spotter to keep track of the robot (and gather up the balls), and don’t shoot things at people who don’t look interested in the robotics program. Annoying people would be bad.
If shooting balls at people is a bad idea for your venue, there’s always the option of having the robot follow people around. That’s best accomplished with FTC bots if you have one, as they don’t block traffic as much in the process of people-following.
. They make a good demonstration at the info table.