By Mary O’KEEFE

This is a continuation of a story first printed in the March 16 issue in Youth.

While the robot is being built there are other members of the team who work on the infrastructure.

Business

The Business group fuels the program by securing funding and sponsorships.

“We reach out to sponsors and let people know what we do in the community,” said Kayan Patel.

Sponsors have included Walt Disney and NASA/JPL, among other companies both corporate and small business. The team needs money to enter the competition, which costs $5000, and to buy equipment needed to make the robot.

In addition to raising funds, the Business group is also tasked with preparing for the Chairman’s Award. This is a requirement for teams that get support from Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Criteria for the Chairman’s Award include writing an essay and making a presentation.

“It’s an award for celebrating a team’s activities outside of the build season,” said Zertes Bhadha.

These students are very busy during build season, the six weeks preparing for competition followed by practice for the competition, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. All local teams – Clark, Crescenta Valley and La Cañada high schools – participate in FIRST Lego Leagues where they reach out to elementary and middle schools and Girl Scout troops to mentor the younger kids through STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).

The Crescenta Valley High School Falkon 589 team members also attend and volunteer at many community events, including at the Hometown Country Fair. They also work with their FLL teams, taking their robot to Rosemont Middle School to share with students and mentoring younger kids who are interested or maybe just curious about robotics. Including the build season, over 120 members of Team 589 accumulate about 3,000 community service hours … and it is important to note they do this while continuing their academic studies and memberships in other clubs.

The Business group makes certain that the team’s accomplishments are recorded and shared in the essay that is presented at FIRST.

Website

Of course community outreach by robotic team members attending various community events is important, but social media also plays an important role.

The Website group talks with the entire team to see what each group would like on the team website.

“We updated the website this year,” said Kirk Luther, junior. “I wanted to go with 589 colors as the theme. We will [include] the history of our team; that is important for those [589 alumni].”

In addition the website will include the team’s mission statement and drawings from CAD of each robot. Luther and Dorian Nelson, a senior who is also on the Website group, wanted to make certain the website not only reflects what the team is doing now but to also recognize past teams.

A new division at 589 is the Image group. These members Dorian Nelson, a senior who is also on the Website group, wanted to make certain the website not only reflects what the team is doing now but to also recognize past teams.

A new division at 589 is the Image group. These members decorate the booth or pit the team works out of at the FIRST competition. This year the theme of FIRST is steam punk so 589 has gone all out with gears and copper piping.

“We started working day one of the season. We had ideas of what we wanted our pit [booth] to look like and we wanted to integrate them … We immediately started working by sanding and repainting the [pipes],” said Angela Snyder.

The pipes are actually plastic but when 589 got done with them they looked like copper piping that framed the team’s booth. In the back were gears, but because these students, with guidance from mentors, go beyond simply decorating to decorating that follows a philosophy, the gears do more than just look good.

“The gears interlock and work together representing our team, how we all work together to build the robot,” she added.

The meaning behind the décor is shared with each member of the team because during the competition judges will come by and ask questions about the pit/booth.

“What the judges will see is a visual representation of the team,” added Nicholas Daebrovsky. .

For this group it is merging their love of STEM with philosophy and art. Both sides of the brain works equally to come up with their home away from home, their pit while they are competition.

It is obvious that it takes all types of students to get the robot ready for FIRST. From gear heads to philosophers there is a place for everyone on the robotics team. Many of the team members work on more than one group, but all, like the gears in their pit, work together.

  Mary Okeefe