New Team Picture [2/16/12]
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- Published on Friday, 17 February 2012 01:40
Hello everybody, Sharkie here! Yah, I get to be on the front page!
Today, as many people as possible from the team went to GM to take a picture, take a quick tour of the GM facilities we use, see what the Build crew does, and finally glimpse the robot!
Don't I look amazing? Oh yeah, everyone else looks great too! I feel sad that not everybody could come, but at least I could pose with so many of my swimming buddies. Don't worry though, there will plenty of chances for another team picture with me. :-)
Sharkies Journal 2/6/12
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- Published on Monday, 06 February 2012 19:22
WOW! We are already in the fifth week of build. I am sooo anxious to see the completed robot. My fellow Hammerheads, and our wonderful GM / MAAC engineering mentors, are working diligently at the GM Tech Center. My friends in the animation group are also working very hard. They have been meeting every day after school. They are all extremely talented and are in the process of producing another fine animation. The Chairman’s group has been meeting on the weekends to finish that submission. As far as I’m concerned… literary giants all of them. ; - ) So, I guess all is going great so far.
“Individually we are one drop, together, we are an ocean." ~Ryunosuke Satoro
Kickoff was Amazing! 1/8/12
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- Published on Sunday, 08 January 2012 22:07
Kickoff was great! I always enjoy getting together with the entire team. First we enjoyed a team building challenge. Each year, our engineering mentors create a fun LEGO engineering challenge. We work in teams and then test our results. This year we built a bridge out of LEGOs. Teams were split into two parts and each half had a bag of LEGOs. We came together to create on paper a bridge using those parts. Now for the real challenge! We each had to go back to our side, use our drawing to build our half of the bridge. Then when our turn came to test our bridge, we had to be able to snap the two halves together without using any more pieces. The bridges were tested using hanging weights. Much tougher than we thought. We learned the importance of knowing your materials, good drawings (CAD), incorporating everyone’s ideas, and unfortunately, the process of trial and error. We had fun though.
After that we watched Kickoff. Not only did we learned this year’s robot challenge, but new members were exposed to, and hopefully impressed by, FIRST founders and supporters that spoke during the presentation. We all ate lunch and then it was off to the CAD room for some brainstorming. After discussing the game rules and strategy, we got into groups to work on some design ideas. We came back together and each group presented its concept. This gave us all much food for thought. Monday after school we will meet again to, hopefully, finalize a design. Whooo, long day!
By the way, it was so much fun seeing the team again this year! Can't wait until next time!
Sharkie's Journal 1/24/2012
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- Published on Tuesday, 24 January 2012 02:52
Meanwhile, back to the depths of the sea for me... Can't keep my family waiting!
Happy New Year! [1/1/12!]
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- Published on Monday, 02 January 2012 22:07
Happy New Year, everybody! Yes, I know the picture makes no sense; undersea environment, picture of a sky? Sorry, but I wanted pretty snowflakes. I sometimes risk coming out of the water to see the pretty snow falling down... Now, where was I?
Dear Hammerheads, Fishies, and everybody else, the sea is fine today! We've made it to 2012! Hey, guys, remember Kickoff is on the 7th! FIRST somehow makes amazing games every year, and I can't wait to find out what's coming up. Hope it has something to do with water! Maybe diving robots,... or fishing? Well, anyways, see you guys at Troy High for the annual Kickoff, where we'll have lots of fun!
In other news, I've changed my font to Comic Sans! You'll should see this all the time from now on. Oh, and I think I like having the date in the title... it just feels right for a journal!