It’s been a busy four weeks, barely time to capture all of the news and new things. On November 15, we staged our second-annual Robot Day at the Minnesota Children’s Museum to educate the ten-and under crowd about Robotics. Joining us were Teams 2052-KnightKrawler, 2500-HeroBotics and 2846-FireBears. We set up an “introduction to wiring” using Snap Circuits, had a coloring book station, and did robot demos to let the children participate in the fun of playing with “Zeke.” We showed 1,750 kids and their parents, siblings and other museum visitors how our robot works, and have them take the controls to feel what it’s like to drive a real FIRST robot. We combined our Computer-Aided Design (CAD) students with those from KnightKrawler, to demonstration how CAD works. Not only were many fascinated by the images and the CREO software that was used to create detailed drawings, but Knight Krawler brought a small 3D printer and printed FIRST logos giveaways for the kids and parents who stopped by the CAD booth.
Just a week earlier, The Green Machine gathered at Lifetime Fitness to kick off our first-ever (and now to become annual) Team 1816 Retreat. Team bonding was immediate, as we were separated into four groups, ending up with a smattering of old and new mixed up together. We all went through a modified ‘boot camp,’ as well as a seminar on nutrition. We thank the trainers at the Bloomington North Lifetime Fitness Club for donating their time and expertise as we were jump started into athletic activities all designed to keep us health and fit throughout the build and competition season. Our dinner activities included a challenge to understand how we see our team now and how we want it to look in the future. What we saw were a lot of sticky notes that were carefully sorted into two awesome Word Clouds. Our business subteam reviewed their updated Fundraising and Sponsorship seminar and presented our new Sponsor presentation. Sunday morning, we broke into small groups for the annual safety seminar and quiz. It was the first-time ever everyone present ever passed the quiz on the first try!
Our Second-Annual STEM Career Night was a great event for people of all ages to come see what the STEM field is all about. With five amazing speakers, the event was as a huge success. Dr. Dominique Seetapun captivated the audience with her amazing discoveries as a Product Development Scientist; Dr. Minna Hovinen, who does research into new hard-drive technologies with Seagate Technology; Lisa Brink, Director of Customer Strategy and Insights, Elicit Marketing Insights; Matt Mitttag, one of 1816s mentors and a development engineer with Dow Water & Process Solutions, and Dr. Yoji Shimizu, Director of the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of Minnesota. Each speaker presented a different facet of STEM, drawing connections between what they studied and how it lead to their professional careers. A Career Fair followed the presentations, giving audience members a chance to gain more in-depth information about various STEM careers.
The Green Machine happily participated in the Edina Day of Service. At 9 am, we split into our two outreach teams, “Green” and “White.” The White Team cleaned Lewis Park, picking up handfuls of trash throughout the park and playing fields. The Green Team thoroughly cleaned Lake Edina Park, with many of the same results. We then combined efforts to take care of fall clean-up chores at the Calvary Lutheran Church, raking thousands of leaves up into big piles and bagging them up. By the end of the day, it looked like we had created a giant igloo out of brown paper lawn bags.