Welcome to the Waterford School Ravens Robotics’ Blog! We will be updating this blog every Monday until the end of the season and each week two new students will write the blog.
Our season started on kick off day, January 4, 2014. This is the day when the creaters of FRC (FIRST Robotic Competition) release the game video and rules of the year. Then, the teams who are competing can start strategizing and building for the competion. As a team, we went to Hillcrest High School to watch the game video with serval other teams. I remember waking up at 7:15 am and think, wait school hasn’t started why do I have to even move before 10 am, I then remembered that I was about to start a very interesting and life changing journey. The big reveal is always nerve racking and even though this is my first year in robotics I was at the edge of my seat. However, the internet at the school was really slow so as the video started it stopped and buffered for a few minutes, it took a while for us to realize the internet cable wasn’t plugged into the right computer. (The first glitch of the season.)
After we watched the video, our mentors had a meeting so the team split up into groups to start looking at the rules. Brighton High, a rookie team we offered to mentor, was at the meeting, too. After the meeting was over we all gathered on the bus to go back to Waterford to start strategizing. When we got back to Waterford we broke into small groups and the whole team gathered around to eat lunch (graciously supplied by Jacob’s father). We joked and ate, but after lunch ended was when the real fun began. We started by eliminating ideas we didn’t think would work, but then it escalated into a discussion of whether or not we should be able recover balls from the floor. By the end of the day we had not decided and it was tabled until the next day. Being in Robotics can be a little bit overwhelming but the Ravens Robotics’ program was more welcoming and inclusive than any other team I have been on.
I originally started the program to because my sister was recruiting more females to participate on the team because there was a little bit too much testosterone in one room. I was already waiting after school for her to be done with Robotics so I might as well have something to do besides homework. I have grown to love robotics so much in the short time that I have been apart of the team, and way more than I was expecting too. Overall this has been a great start to my first season on the Robotics team.
-Celeste Moreland (10th grade)
