Community events and demonstrations, in Edina Public Schools and before team sponsors and supporters, are keeping Team 1816 busy this spring.
The Green Machine and Zeus made a featured appearance during the Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota’s showcase at the Mall of America in April. The daylong event was devoted to exhibits and demonstrations that involve students and adult mentors. Amy Zhang, incoming 2010 team captain, was featured in a news report about the Mentoring Partnership on WCCO TV. When Zeus demonstrated its dumping and scooping maneuvers, it attracted a large group of children and parents, many of whom were excited by the idea that high school students were able to design and build a competition-worthy robot. The Mentoring Partnership’s “Wired for 2020” is an engagement campaign aimed at getting more adults involved in mentoring.
The team next took its “practice” robot to the “Under the Big Top” spring carnival hosted by Edina’s Concord Elementary School. Being present at the carnival was important to the team as it strives to establish both a “Young Inventors’ Club” and FIRST Lego League at the school. Students in Grades K – 5 were asked to put on safety glasses and try their hand at steering the robot through a short obstacle course. The chassis of the practice robot uses mecanum drive, allowing it to move horizontally in any direction without the chassis changing orientation. This robot was not built for a FIRSTcompetition, but to give team members additional off-season practice in designing, building, and programming a robot.
Zeus even made a special guest appearance at Valley View Middle School for two all-school PepFest events. Team 1816 proudly shared the limelight with the Valley View FTC Team 2887-Bucket Brigade who showed off the bucket-waving capabilities of its 2009 robot, “Betty”. The team also will take Zeus into Valley View classrooms in late-May to help emphasize the real-world applications of “Project Lead the Way” curriculum.
The Green Machine will appear on May 30 at Valleyfair as part of a full day of FIRST Robotics exhibitions and demonstrations. We look forward to greeting you there!