We Want YOU To Be On Our Team

FIRST Robotics Team 3313 Mechatronics did some major recruiting today! We visited 3 different classes of 9th graders at Discovery Middle School. It was incredibly fun to share our work and talk about FIRST Robotics and STEM. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be a 3313 event without some problems.

Our first presentation was for Mrs. Kalina's Principles of Engineering class. We brought the robot in and was all set to go. Except a gear box had come apart during transit.... Ugh. So Bryce and Brandon started working on it while we did the power point presentation. It was Robotics In Action! Or something like that... The presentation still went really well. The students were interested throughout. We ended up gettting 14 names and email addresses! That's great!

The next presentation was in Mr. Holmen's PLTW class. This class does a lot of CAD work. We were going to drive Rover around during passing time and get some good video for Chairman's award. As usual, Murphy's Law happened. Yet another gear box came apart. Bryce and Brandon got to work fixing it while the rest of the group (Gabe, Allen, Molly, Kacy, and Bydlon) did the presentation. Again, the students were really interested and it went well. Bryce and Brandon are awesome and got the gear box working. However, a cable was broken so Rover had a limp (one motor didn't work). We made due the best we could and still had fun.

We have a meeting tomorrow after school. It will be really fun because we received a bunch of our Murphy upgrade parts. Can't wait to start shooting basketballs again!!

Rebooting

It was an organizing and rebooting day today for the team. Many team members were busy so attendance was low. That's ok after a big event like the parade last Saturday.

Molly and Bydlon met with a 4H representative today. She had a curriculum for mini robots that she wanted to share with the team. Basically, the team would use the curriculum in area classrooms to spread the word of FIRST Robotics and 4H at the same time. The team is always looking for ways to help make Robotics cool for younger students and we are definitely interested in making this happen.

Kacy worked on getting a bunch of contact information for fundraising activities. The team would like to expand our sponsorship base with all of the local manufacturing companies. She also sent out emails to the 9th grade engineering teachers to help recruit some younger students for the team.

Bryce and Bydlon planned out a new electrical board for Murphy. It will be good practice for new members and returning members. Besides, Murphy's electrical board is kind of a mess. All the examples the team saw at the Regionals have really influenced our design. We will put the Victor motor controllers on the side, above the wheels. The middle of the bot will then be more open and hold all of the other components. Bryce made part of the board in AutoCad.

Allen and Dalton made some real progress with the programming. They got autonomous started on Rover. It can now spin and drive on its own. Murphy's autonomous also made progress, it can almost shoot a basket. We are so excited to show off our new drive controller once it's all finished!

Another meeting on Thursday this week. Lots of October planning coming then. Fundraisers, events, and meetings to plan!