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In The News
CVHS Robot Needs Support
We want to thank everyone who has donated to the CVHS robotics team. The community support has been greatly appreciated.
We would like you to know who we are and what we do.
Our team consists of about 40 students from Crescenta Valley and seven adult mentors from Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Crescenta Valley High School.
In December we entered the JPL Challenge and won third place but our main competition is in less then six weeks.
Each year the robotics club participates in the FIRST [For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology] Robotics Competition. On Jan. 8 we were among an estimated 50,000 members of teams across the country and the world that listened to the challenge we will be facing in this year’s competition. Inventor and FIRST founder Dean Kamen introduced the game called “Logo Motion.” We will be competing on a 27-by-54 foot field with poles attempting to earn points by hanging as many triangles, circles and square logo pieces as possible. Bonus points will be earned for each robot that can hang and assemble logo pieces to form the FIRST logo. Robots can also deploy mini-bots to climb vertical poles for a chance to earn additional points.
We are very excited about the possibility of a mini-me robot. Once we learn of the rules we immediately start brainstorming to create a design and began to construct the robot. The students are divided into groups, each focusing on a different aspect of the robot. And we don’t stop working on it for six weeks.
The competitions are amazing. We all get to meet other teams and exchange items that represent our team, like buttons, or last year one of our members welded together dolls we called Jacob dolls after the designer.
These regional events give us a chance to meet teams from all over the country. We compare how they built their robot and talk about their school programs. During the competition we are paired with two other teams, which inspires team building.
We couldn’t do this without volunteer mentors and our parents who feed us and help us find needed equipment. Each year our program grows and to stay competitive we have decided to take our robot and team to a FIRST competition in San Diego. This is in addition to the regional one in Long Beach.
All of this costs money and with programs being cut and education funding for special projects low we must depend on support from our community and corporations.
If anyone would like to support our team or knows of a corporation that would like to sponsor future scientists, engineers, mathematicians and all around geeks please have them contact us.
Again for those who have supported us we thank you. We have never had to leave the lab to ask for donations before and to know that people do care about this type of competition is very rewarding.
Thank you
The CVHS Robotics Club Management Team
For more information or to donate please contact Greg Neat at CVHS (818) 249-5871 or email molly.shelton14@gmail.com
- Please join us for an informational meeting on Wednesday, April 18, 2012 at lunch. We will be discussing our fall FLL teams.
- If you are interested in sponsoring our team, please contact either Isabel or Pauline!