VEX Middle School & High School Tournament 11/8/2014-11/9/2014
On November 8-9, 2014, C.O.R.E. 2062 hosted a VEX Tournament for high school students at Waukesha South High School. This year’s game is called Skyrise. After getting the teams’ robots inspected and measured, the competition finally started at about nine a.m. The gym was filled with excitement as people cheered on their favorite teams. Throughout the entire day, students were making quick fixes on their VEX robots due to the wear and tear of matches. The robots ranged from being very simple to complex. It was a day full of highs and lows as people won matches and robots broke and teams won awards. C.O.R.E. queued the teams for matches and refereed. At the end of the day everyone was exhausted but happy with how the day went.
Marquette Concessions – 11/21/14-11/23/14
As a duel fundraising and volunteering event, CORE 2062 provided the concessions for an FLL tournament held at Marquette. It was really fun to see all of the excited students ready for their competition. We hope that everyone who attended enjoyed our concession stands, and we thank them for supporting our team!
Christmas Clearing Council – 12/13/14
We volunteered with the Christmas Clearing Council to help distribute toys, books, and warm clothes to less fortunate families during the christmas season. We were assigned a few children, and from their ages got to pick out plethora of gifts to suit their needs, and make their faces light up. It was an incredibly awarding experience and we hope to do it again next year.
Wisconsin Regional – 3/19/15-3/21/15
Going into elimination rounds of this competition, our alliance members were team 2826 “Wave” and team 2530 “Inconceivable”. Our alliance was able to score 216 points, the highest all competition. Both our team and 2826 were able to consistently stack totes five to six high with a recycling container on top. Our other alliance member, 2530 was able to pull recycling containers off the step which allowed for both us and our team member to continuously receive bins. This helped us win the competition and in addition, our team also won the UL Safety award along with our safety captain being awarded Star of the Day.
Midwest Regional – 4/1/15-4/4/15
Last regional, CORE 2062 was proud to announce that we had won the Wisconsin regional. This week, we had even better news: the unprecedented winning of a second regional in a single competition season. After competing in the Midwest regional, we came home with yet another gold medal. This achievement was a first in the nine years we have competed in FRC. In addition, we won a second UL Industrial Safety Award, Safest Pit, Innovation in Controls and six peer awards from various other teams at the regional!
Championships – 4/22/15-4/25/15
After months of hard work, CORE finally went to Championships! Six hundred teams representing 46 states and 11 countries attended this championship event. CORE was thrilled to represent Waukesha and compete with this elite group of teams. We made it to the quarterfinals in our division, placing eighth out of over seventy teams from around the world. In addition we were thrilled and honored to have been awarded the UL Industrial Safety Award at the international level. Congratulations to Lexus Stokes, our Safety Captain, for directing this program, and for winning Star of the Day at Championships!
Rockwell Days – 2/24/15 & 2/26/15
A few students were invited to go to Rockwell Automation for engineering week. There, we introduced employees to FRC by presenting last year’s robot and also discussed the challenge and competition. As we drove around Hermes, our robot, visitors asked questions about our team. A few even drove and played catch with Hermes! At the presentation, students learned about the importance of professionalism skills. They got a chance to relate their knowledge to professional engineers. Employees were impressed by the amount of knowledge we had on our robot’s complicated machinery as well as our ability to build a robot in under six weeks. During the visit we also met the CEO of Rockwell who had heard about the event and wanted to meet our team.
MPTV Auction – 5/2/15
At this volunteering opportunity, students were able to to help answer phones and submit bids. Others went on TV and showed off items for sale. It was a great experience and we can’t wait to do it again next year!
Hillcrest – 5/12/15
CORE attended the annual Hillcrest Ice Cream Social and demonstrated two different FRC robots, as well as several VEX bots. The kids from Hillcrest all had a great time completing challenges and learning the controls for both types of robots. In addition, CORE members had fun explaining what robotics is and interacting with the younger students. It is always amazing to see the awe on a child’s face and be reminded of just how extraordinary what we do really is.
Bright Lights – 5/13/15
This week as we spoke at a Bright Lights presentation for the school board, telling them about CORE and robotics. The three CORE presenters gave a 10 minute speech which described not only what our team has done this season, but also the organization through which we compete (FIRST), our community impact, and our mission. In addition, these presenters were supported by several other members and mentors who all came to watch and help answer questions. Overall, the presentation went incredibly well. The board members all reacted positively and gave a variety of insightful comments. In addition, the meeting was broadcast throughout Waukesha, making it an incredible opportunity to spread awareness about our team.
Blair Flair – 5/21/15
CORE demonstrated the robot at the Blair Flair event, which celebrated the 125th anniversary of Blair elementary school. We brought out our 2014 robot Hermes for playing catch as well as showed off this year’s robot, Gaia. Along with our FRC robots we also had our VEX robots out for students to drive.
STEM for Girls – 5/28/15
This was the second event of the off-season. There, we showed off our 2014 robot Hermes and this year’s robot Gaia at the annual STEM For Girls event. STEM For Girls brings in elementary and middle school girls who are interested in the STEM field and allows them to further explore their interests through demonstrations. CORE 2062 was a main attraction as we demonstrated our Hermes robot from last year. We hope to do STEM For Girls again next year to get girls and new members interested in joining FRC and other FIRST programs.
STEM – 5/28/15
Six CORE members went to the Saratoga STEM Academy to talk to middle school students and discuss some of their areas of expertise. In the hour long session, STEM students were encouraged to talk with everyone from CORE to get detailed explanations of what we do. Whereas many of our demonstrations focus upon giving students basic exposure to robotics and inspiring them to consider STEM fields, this demonstration was unique in that we had time to answer more detailed questions. CORE members had a great time talking about complex engineering processes with these motivated, and highly intelligent students. We look forward to hopefully seeing some of them on our team in the future!
Metal Parts Tour – 6/2/15
Waukesha Metal Parts is a company that creates various metal components to machines that other corporations would need to create or be part of their product. Our students were able to experience the steps used to make these pieces and the machinery required to make them. It was interesting to see what happens behind the scenes at buildings such as these and we would like to come back in the future with new team members.