Announcements

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Jan 3, 2010 Kick-Off

To All -

As you know this Saturday, January 9th is the Kick-off at NJIT. We will be meeting in front of the high school at about 8AM. I must have all signed permission slips and the $15 by Thursday. Also, a signed US FIRST Consent form must be to me by Thursday. These items have been handed out to all students at previous meetings.

Thanks, Joanne

Jan 1, 2010 After Kick-Off

Hi all,

Happy new year to all.

The team is planning to come over to our house to begin design work on the robot on Saturday, January 9. (7 Eagle Rock Way, between Gates and Melrose Avenues.) Ruth, Perrin and I thought it would be a good idea to have a team-building potluck supper that evening, also at our house. Please let me know how many people will be coming to the supper, please plan to bring drinks, and also let me know whether you'll want to bring a) snacks for the kids for the afternoon; b) dinner entree; c) dinner salad or appetizers; or d) dessert. Adults and other family members, please plan to arrive at about 6. The team could use white boards or easels with pads to work on. Can anyone contribute those, as we don't have any? Thanks. Please get back to me with your specifics by Monday, and we'll look forward to seeing everyone next Saturday.

Best, Deborah

Dec 18, 2009 Kick-Off

As you know we will be attending the kick-off at NJIT on Saturday, January 9th. I just found out we can take a maximum of 20 people. Mr. Barouch and myself will be going and we will take 18 students. Students were given permission slips on Thursday, Dec. 17th. Please get them back in ASAP with payment. It will be on a first come basis. Also, we just got word there will be a series of workshops and so our return will be a little later. I would anticipate it will be closer to 3:30. All students must have a signed consent form which can be done electronically or hard copy. This is available on the US FIRST website.

Enjoy the approaching snow!!

Dec 16, 2009 NY Regional

We have gained admittance into the NY Regional at the Jacob Javits Center in NYC. Dates to follow.

Dec 14, 2009 Meeting

To All-

There will be a mandatory meeting for all team members this Thursday, Dec. 17th right after school. Permission slips for our January 9th Kick-off will be handed out. Electronic consent forms must be completed by each and every student. Please be sure to follow the link that was sent in a previous posting. We will be doing this on Thursday as well. Update - I am still waiting word on our status for the NY Regional and Atlanta Championship.

Dec 10, 2009 Consent and Release Form

To All:

The FIRST Student Team Members and Parents/Legal Guardians Information System and the Electronic Consent and Release Form are now available! Keep in mind that students who choose to submit an Electronic Consent and Release Form and are attending a Kickoff Event, must submit online no later than January 6th, 2010. For more details:

Dec 10, 2009 Update

Good morning all -

I'd like to update all of you on what we have been doing over the past several weeks. The team continues to meet every Tuesday after school in room 3. We have had some new members join us this year which is great! We have a mix of all grade levels.

At this point I should have the Code of Conduct, Emergency Medical Treatment Authorization (notarized) and the District consent form for use of your child's photo for publication purposes. In addition each and every student must have the FIRST consent form signed and returned to me by next week. Students have been given copies and these are also available on line at FIRST.

We will be attending the kickoff on Saturday, January 9th at NJIT. Permission slips are on the way and the cost will be $15.00 for the bus. As of now we will be participating in the NJ Regional in Trenton from March 5th - 7th. We are currently on the waitlist for New York and Atlanta.

The students have been working on a new T-shirt and button design. The designs are dynamic and I am currently working with a vendor to get the t-shirts produced. Some students are interested in caps as well. Students will be signing up for what sizes they need and we hope to have these items by early January.

A new website is being created by a group of students and we are in the stages of obtaining the domain name and host site. More to come on this soon.

Some of the team members have been baking and selling baked goods at the Adult School on Tuesday nights.

Students have become acquainted with the FTC game and now have the parts to begin assembling the robot. They will be working in class and after school on the robot. More to come on this at a later date. The FRC build schedule will be posted shortly. Mr. Barouch is working on this.

We need more mentors. I have been reaching out to some of our MHS staff, former industrial arts teachers and MSU. If anyone has any additional names, emails or phone numbers send them to me and I will contact them. If any of you have an interest in working with the team let me know as well.

The students have been great - they are communicating with one another and working as a team!!

Have a wonderful Holiday Season.
Thank you for your continued support.
Joanne Petrigliano, Robotics Coordinator

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Updates

Week 6

Almost there o_O

Week 5

This week was by far the most strenuous. We began to feel that ominous feeling that the season was almost over and nothing got done. We basically had what we started with 3 weeks ago! Fortunately though, we solved 75% percent of our problems. We reinforced the KB with 1 inch aluminum steel that we hammered into the frame. We were able to make the hanging arm lighter by using one piece of steel instead of several pieces of aluminum. We repositioned the motors for the drive train and winch so we could optimized space. We also had to create a very sturdy battery box since, when we start climbing up the tower, we don�t want the battery to fall out. When this week was over the last remaining thing was to remount the shooter (which upon testing can now shoot from the second zone) and putting on electronics.

Week 4

This is when things began to go downhill. Now we had to view the true practicality of our robot and all the problems it had. The Kitbot frame was weak, the shooter could only shoot in the first zone, the hanging arm was too heavy (we�d have to remove the jaguars to operate it!), and everything took up too much space to properly fit all the electronics. We were in a huge rut because by the end of this week we basically removed everything except for the drive train.

Week 3

By this week we realized IRL what are robot could and couldn�t do. Due to the amount of clearance the kitbot frame gave us we were able to go over the bumps with ease and also, thanks to our arm design, we could go under as well! However, it would�ve been impossible to create a flipper/hanging arm. At this point we had mounted the shooter, drive train, arm, and electronics. Which was equally fortunate since we showcased our bot off to our School�s Board of Education. Things were beginning to look up since we would almost be done with our robot in 3 weeks!

Week 2

This week is when we made concrete decisions about what exactly we wanted it to do, which was almost impossible due to all the input. However, we decided we wanted to have 4 wheel drive with a pneumatic shooter that can drive over (and hopefully under!) the bump and under the tower. Also we wanted our hanging arm to be able to double as a flipper. By the time this week was over we already had the shooter mounted, drive train on, and our electronics were set up, and the programming was 90% done!

Week 1

As soon as we left NJIT we headed to the Co-Captain Sam Stymest�s house. There we had a 6 hour design meeting where we went over game rules while brainstorming the endless possibilities abou0t design for the robot By the end of the night we had some ballpark ideas about what we wanted to do in terms of the shooter, hanging arm, flipper, and drive train. Once we got back to school kids began building simple prototypes of their ideas while we built the Kitbot. By the end of week 1 we had two shooter prototypes, a completed Kitbot, and all CRio components removed from the previous year�s robot so we could use them for this year.