Alpine Valley 08
During the summer of 2008, our team worked concessions at a music festival at Alpine Valley in East Troy. We raised over $3000 by working at this venue.
Summerfest 7.3.08
During the summer, our team looks for ways to spread the message of FIRST in our community. After our second year of participating in FIRST, our team was excited to continue competing during the off-season. This was the first year we went to Summerfest, a Midwest regional music festival, and participate in exhibition matches hosted by Charger Robotics. Typically people don’t expect do see a group of high school students building and competing with robots at a music festival. People were excited, to learn about FIRST Robotics, to meet students interested in a STEM education and to watch the epic battle between our robots. We continue to show our robotics skills at this music festival annually.
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HK Systems Presentation 7.2.08
During the summer, we gave a presentation at HK Systems in New Berlin, one of our newest partners in 2008. We wanted to provide them with a better idea of who we are and what we do. We also toured the HK Systems facilities to get an idea of what their company could offer our team.
Heyer Elementary 3.7.08
After the robot shipped, our team gave a presentation at a local elementary school. We talked to the students about what FIRST Robotics is all about as well as how they can become involved. We encouraged students to attend the VEX summer school, offered by the School District of Waukesha, to learn more about robots and to prepare them to be on a VEX middle school team. The students had a great time and enjoyed interacting with our robots and team members.
Freshman Activities Night 5.28.08
C.O.R.E. participated in Waukesha South High School’s Freshman Orientation talking to incoming freshmen about our robotics team. Through our VEX and FRC robots we demonstrated to the incoming students how exciting and educational robotics can be. Students were thrilled to join our team. Our time with the students gave our team practice in public speaking.
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2008 Championship
Our team qualified for the 2008 championship by winning the Wisconsin regional with the assistance of teams 171 and 2549. Our entire team was thrilled that our incredible journey would not be ending just yet, but that we would be continuing on to the international Championship in Atlanta, GA. Our team ended up not being chosen for the final matches in our division. Our team was however the winner of the Underwriters Laboratories Industrial Safety Award. Our entire team was thrilled to learn all of our hard work had paid off and that we were the safest team in the world. Our team had an incredible season in 2008 and cannot wait for the 2009 season to begin.
2008 Wisconsin Regional
From March 13th through the 15th, our team attended the Wisconsin Regional. We decided to make a few modifications to the robot after St. Louis. We brainstormed on how to make our adequate robot even better. After our team decided to make a Lexan flipper that enabled us to remove balls faster from the overpass and we ordered different gears that made the robot 50% faster. We knew that changing the gear train would be risky because we had a very limited amount of time to swap out parts in Milwaukee. Luckily, the schedule in Milwaukee worked to our advantage and our great pit crew was able to make all modifications between the preliminary matches. The Wisconsin regional surpassed all of our expectations! We won the regional with alliance partners 171 and 2549. Special thanks go out to team 171 for picking us and assembling a great alliance. Team work was critical, and our alliance performed like they had been working together for a very long time. The memories from Milwaukee will last a lifetime. We were very happy to also win the Underwriters Laboratory Industrial Safety Award for second time. Then, we went off to Atlanta for the FIRST Championship, which was held from April 17th to April 19th.
2008 St. Louis Regional
Our team started the season at the St. Louis Regional, February 28th to March 1st. We knew that this was one of the stronger regionals. We wanted to see how we stacked up against some of the best teams in the nation. Our main goal was to get in as much practice time as possible in preparation for the Wisconsin Regional. We were delighted and surprised to do as well as we did amongst the 45 teams attending. We made it to the semifinals being beat by the eventual winning alliance of teams 148, 217 and 830. We would like to thank our alliance partner’s team 525 and 2044. They were great to work with and showed gracious professionalism in the heat of battle. We were extremely proud to bring home three awards from this regional. Our team received the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Entrepreneurship Award, the Underwriters Laboratory Industrial Safety Award, and the Website Award.
Salvation Army Bell Ringing 07
This year we participated in a bell ringing contest among other teams and clubs in our school district. The goal was to see which team or club could raise the most money for the Salvation Army. We participated in this contest because it offered us an opportunity to help and to give back to our community.
Celebration of Excellence 11.4.07
Our team was asked to set up a booth at the Celebration of Excellence organized by The Waukesha Education Foundation. We were featured in the Hall of Excellence to showcase our achievements. We talked to various people, introducing our team and explaining FIRST to our community.
Oak Creek Concessions 11.3.07
We organized concessions at a Lego League tournament at Oak Creek West Middle School. This was a good opportunity for new team members to get involved with our team and also for our team to raise funds for next season.
School Board Meeting 9.12.07
Student groups that are achieving great things in our district are requested to give annual presentations to the School District of Waukesha School Board. These groups give what are known as Bright Lights presentations. These presentations highlight incredible activities that are occurring in the school district.
On August 8th, our robotics team presented to the school board. Our team’s presentation has been hailed as one of the greatest student presentations given to the board. Our presentation was frequently rerun on the school districts cable TV station because of the quality! In the days after this presentation, we received feedback from the board members. One of the school board members said:
“Thank you for your time and energy allocated to organizing and presenting a wildly successful Bright Lights presentation around FIRST Robotics. Even at 11:45 pm as we exited the Board Room last night members of the BOE were still talking about the great presentation. Your attention to detail in preparation, professionalism, and enthusiasm resonated well for Board members and the large audience on hand. This signature program helps make this district great!”
During this presentation, we reported to the school board our successes at the past year’s competition as well as all of the other great things that we are working to accomplish. We told the board members about all of the incredible things that we were learning as a result of this program. We told them that we felt as if we had proven to the community that students can accomplish all of the great things that adults can do. This presentation was crucial in increasing our recognition in the school district and building our reputation. Now whenever someone is seen wearing the robotics team shirt, they are known and regarded highly as a person on the robotics team.
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