Fall 2011 – Laying the ground work for a successful team.

 

It was decided to jump start team by building a basic competition robot for the 2011 game Logo Motion and enter the team in 2 off season competitions.   The Fall build program has three goals.

 

1)     Get a core group of students further along on the learning curve for robot building, programming and competition so they would be able to jump right into the competition season.

2)     Create a robot owned build by McDevitt Students for demo at the school to aid in recruiting of new students.   Having a robot on hand for demonstrations gives potential team members a tangible picture of what the team is about.  Seeing one that is build and run by fellow students helps to visualize themselves as part of the team.  (If they can do it, I can do it)

3)     Generate support from school staff and administration.  Like students, when staff and administration see the robot the are more likely to support the team. 

 

Using the list complied in the spring and additional recruiting from Mr. J, a core team of about 10 students, under the guidance of Firebird mentors and students, meet at the Firebirds robotics build site and constructed a basic robot capable of playing the 2011 game Logomotion.   The robot called LunchBox was built with mostly with parts scavenged from the Firebirds shop.  The build took 4 weeks and the robot was ready to enter the first of 2 fall competitions. 

 

 

Lunch box under construction at the Firebirds shop

 

 

 

The team entered the GirlPower event and Duel on the Delaware event.  The events gave the students a first taste of the excitement of a competition and more importantly their first exposure to the concept of Gracious Professionalism.

 

 

McDevitt at the fall competition Duel on the Delaware