2018-2019 Season KickOff Events
Around the beginning of the school year, 4717 team members went to the NASA Visitor Center to watch (and celebrate) the live kickoff video. During the kickoff, several teams presented, and being a well established team, we did as well. Our presentation highlighted our method of presenting to help the newer teams with theirs, and went in depth about the FIRST program. After the presentations ended, the rules were reviewed, and we saw a copy of the field, from there on out, our teams were off to the races!
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Team Crash Course
Several rookie teams from all across the Space Coast league came to our very own Hagerty High School. At this crash course we taught the teams how to use programing, CAD, design, present, work on Notebook, skills needed to succeed in this league. On top of the basics, we taught the members about using multimedia and team building to your advantage. For the duration of the “crash course” we also stressed the importance of Gracious Professionalism, in other words how to compete with character.
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Ronald McDonald House
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During the Ronald McDonald’s event, our team members met with children to conduct science experiments and play with them. One of our activities to make the kids’ stay more fun was to create lava lamps. This event put smiles on children's faces and brightened up their day (all the while infusing a little science). This marked an important event, because it showcased our program, helping to improve our community. Already having had a blast, the team concluded the visit with a chemistry of its own, cooking, brownies with the kids to make sure they are happy.
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Women in Engineering
On October 15th, a group of our members went to Lockheed Martin for the Women in Engineering event. They listened to four women talk about their jobs in the engineering field and how their jobs relate to STEM. Then, we went on a tour of Lockheed Martin, and participated in a few Virtual Reality activities. The goal of this event was to encourage young women to consider a field in engineering as an option. Though it is a predominately male occupation, this community becomes more and more inclusive daily thanks to programs like this.
Stenstrom Elementary STEM Night
We participated in the STEM night on November 25th at Stenstrom Elementary School , which is an event where STEM related organizations provide fun and educational experiences to encourage younger children to love science. In our room, we demonstrated our robot from 2 years ago, Woody. We chose this robot because it is not only visually interesting, but is also easy to control. This was important because we let the children operate the robot, which helped get them more interested in it and how it works. Besides the robot we also brought our display board to give a brief overview of our program for parents. We brought flyers with information about our kids camp to further involve the children in STEM and robotics by making them aware of a valuable educational opportunity. The children seemed very excited to operate the robot and seemed to become more interested in robotics because of how much fun they had.
UCF STEM Day
At UCF STEM Day, October 26th, both teams went to the UCF campus to participate in the STEM Day activities and demonstrate our robots. We brought along EV3 robots to show younger children how to program the robots to complete basic tasks. Our members worked with the kids on tasks like going forward/backwards, changing directions, changing speeds, making noise, and using the color sensor. The kids were very happy and we enjoyed inspiring them to learn about the concepts of STEM.
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FLL Jr. : The Galaxy Girls
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On November 2nd, we partnered with Girl Scout Troop 1649 to mentor them during their FLL Jr. Competition. Our group of girls came up with the name "Galaxy Girls", inspired by the space theme of this year's challenge, Mission Moon. Meeting every other Friday, we educate the "Galaxy Girls" on the Moon and what's needed to survive on there, so they may create a base of their own.
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Orlando Maker Faire: Day 1
We began the day at 9 AM on November 10th by setting up the Hagerty Robotics booth for the Maker Faire attendees. The Maker Faire is a nationwide event and draws in many STEM based attractions. Among these attractions were leagues from our area, we took this opportunity to learn from their booths and help out other teams if a situation arose. For example an FTC team was in a predicament any was in dire need of an allen wrench, we happily obliged and gave them one. We used this to show the attendees about the gracious professionalism within our robotics community. The Maker Faire had thousands of participants, so we had to think of a way to maneuver around the masses and demo our robots to them. We begun by standing at the entrance of the maker faire, and invited kids and adults to our booth. Finding this technique unsuccessful, we instead appealed to young children by bringing out multiple LEGO EV3’s. We then let the children try drag and drop programming. Admiring our success, we bought out the current VEX robot. Our VEX robot is able to shoot and pick up minerals. This entertained a lot of the attendees and shared just one example of how advanced robotics has become. Overall the day was very successful and some attendees expressed interest in sending their children to our summer camp.
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Orlando Maker Faire: Day 2
During the second day, November 11th, many of the members of the previous Maker Faire volunteered again. With yesterday’s experience, the day was especially productive. We began by setting up our booth and preparing the VEX robot to be driven (checking batteries and test running it, ect.) . After settling in, several “Makers” came by to our booth, the majority being fellow robotics teams. Their intrigue of seeing our complex design of “Woody” made many of them ask how the robot worked, and some even took photos. All the program members readily explained the the design and had lots of fun communicating and chatting about the process of building the bot, not only to makers but the whole fair. To make this process run smoothly, we decided 2 people would work with the children to program Ev3s, and during this time another 2 people would be talking to the parents and conveying how “Woody” was composed. During this time children who were waiting to program the EV3’s caught balls thrown from the VEX robot. At especially busy times another member would explain to a different parent about how the VEX robot functioned. Overall the day was really beneficial to the team and we accomplished everything we planned while having fun expressing our ideas.
Publix Demo
On both November 17th and 18th, eight 4717 members, along with multiple Hagerty VEX and 4227 members took shifts promoting our program through demonstrations of the current Vex robot along with Woody, the 4717 robot of two years prior. Our program members spoke to local community members about the opportunities the Hagerty robotics program provides to its members. The different aspects of the robotics program, not just hardware, including multimedia, notebook, programming, and outreach. We also attempted to promote STEM to parents of young children who were interested in engineering and robotics, letting the children operate the robots to a certain extent and nurture a love of STEM in these children. The program ended up raising $673.39 over the span of two days and raised the interest of multiple potential sponsors.
Barnes & Noble day
Our Barnes & Noble event was on November 23rd, or Black Friday and the next day. We began the event by unpacking our supplies, then setting up outside. At this particular event, we were demonstrating our robots and also showing the functions of some STEM-toys, ideal presents for this upcoming holiday. We talked to customers and gave them stickers to show that they were supporting Hagerty Robotics by purchasing items.
I/ITSEC
On November 26th, a group of our members went to the Orlando Convention center and were able to showcase our robot as well as FIRST itself to the large STEM community gathering at this event. We showed off the principles of FIRST, including gracious professionalism, team work, and leadership at this event. Many parents took home flyers for their children of all ages and we educated them with information about local teams. Our members were euphoric to see the future of the STEM community and new technology, all while communicating the importance of programs like FIRST.
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JHMS STEAM Night
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With the goal of promoting FIRST, team members visited the Jackson Heights Middle School Stem Night. Our robot and program boards were displayed for those who pass by. We also presented to interested students and answered any questions they may have. Information on our summer camps, including our Recruitment Camp, were available.
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