Welcome to Pearadox 2018-2019

Presentation available at pearadox5414.org

FRC Team 5414

What is FRC?

• FRC: FIRST Robotics Competition• FIRST: For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology

• More than just robots!

• Function as a small business• Public Relations/Imagery• Business Plan• Strategy• Essay writing• Budgeting• Photography/Videography• $70Mill SCHOLARSHIPS

• 6 weeks to build/design/test a

robot

• New game every year

• FIRST Promo Video

• “Best of” compliation

What is Pearadox

• More than just a robotics team• “Robot is the campfire”

• Year-round program• Outreach, training, demonstrations, projects

• Get out what you put in• Have contributing team members that are also in band, tennis, theater, debate, choir,

swim – but have to manage time carefully and occasionally miss opportunities (travel competitions, special demonstrations, etc)

• Most involved students can put in 15-20 hours a week in build season• Selection for travel/special opportunities based largely on # of hours (with

engagement during meetings a possible factor)

• Program goal is to drive STEAM opportunities for students at all levels in the district

2018-2019 Successes

• In the 2018/2019 school year Pearadox• Demonstrated at the Comicpalooza, MakerFaire, Houston Rockets and other

demonstrations• Made semifinals (1x) and finals (2x) at our district events competitions• Advanced to the world championship division finals• Won Deans List, Engineering Inspiration, Autonomous Award (x2), Excellence in

Engineering• Engineering Inspiration Award – “Celebrates outstanding success in advancing respect and

appreciation for engineering within a team’s school and community.”

• Playoff alliance captain at 4 events (3 district events and district champs)• College Scholarships, job placements

• Roughly 30% of our consistent team members have been employed by a sponsor• Students have gotten more than $60k+ worth of FIRST specific scholarships• Some students have gotten full-rides, possibly attributed to Pearadox

Major calendar events

• June 28th/29th: Texas Robotics Invitational• Offseason event (scrimmage)• Asking new members to get a ride and attend

from ~10-12 on Saturday• Welcome to be there anytime from 8-6• Located at Strake Jesuit8900 Bellaire Blvd, Houston, TX 77036

• July 15-26: Pear Camp support requested

• Mock Kickoff Oct 26th Strake Jesuit

• Early Nov (Date TBD): Remix (offseason scrimmage)

• Dec 7th?: Christmas parade

• Generally, meetings every Sat for summer/fall• Calendar here

Spring calendar

• Jan 4th: Kickoff• New game announced• Note: School doesn’t start until Jan 9th. • We will have important meetings Jan 4-9th

• Feb 18th: unofficially (now) our goal date of a finished robot• There’s about 26 hrs of scheduled meeting time every week (broken down

next slide), but it’s OK if students have to miss meetings

• 2+ “District events” in March/April• District Championship (if qualified) mid April• World Championship (if qualified) late April

Expectations of Students

• Grades up!• We’ll adhere to UIL rules for grades/competitions

• If grades are not UIL-eligible, you can’t attend meetings/competitions/etc until eligible

• If grades are UIL-eligible, students can work on homework at meetings

• This past year, we had study hours available from after school until meeting time

• Safety

• Attendance• We’ll meet every Sat/Sun from Jan 4th – Feb 18th

• Probably every weekend between Feb 20 and end of April.

• We typically meet every Mon/Weds/Fri from 5-9 PM

• Saturday meetings are typically 9-6 and Sunday meetings are typically 1-6

• The weekend meetings are the most important, as the most work gets done then.

• Buses run from Pearland and Dawson to Turner for weekday meetings, and we typically can have study hours from 3-5 at Turner

• We know and recognize many students are involved in many things. Lower participation may limit how a student can contribute – especially at competition

• Active Engagement

• Respect for teachers, mentors, and fellow team members• All here for the same goal and volunteering our time

• There will be a code of conduct for parents and students to sign soon-ish

• SELF > FAMILY > SCHOOL > ROBOTICS

Expectations of students

• TIGERS • Team Improvement, Growth, and Education Records• available to fill out on website too (http://pearadox5414.weebly.com/TIGERs.html) • These help us keep track of all the awesome things our team members do

• Volunteering in PISD• 5+ hrs per student mentoring a jr high or middle school robotics team. This may

increase

• Clean your area before leaving

• I try to end meetings at the scheduled time. In return, I ask that you don’t ask your student to leave 15 min early (that’s the crucial cleaning time)• Sometimes meetings may run late if student desire to finish a job

Varsity Letter Jackets

• To qualify for a varsity letter in robotics, students need to accumulate 100 points total from the following things. If you think you meet the requirements, please be sure to discuss with the Robotics teacher at your school• Actively participate at a regional/district qualifying competition (5 points per

competition)• Actively participate at a state FRC championship competition (10 points per

competition)• Actively participate at a FRC Worlds Championship (20 points per competition)• Logging at least 40 hours for community outreach event/and or peer mentoring,

which falls outside of regular school day (25 points per year)• Logging at least 40 hours of attendance at meetings outside of the regular school

day, during school year (25 points per year)

What to expect from the program

• This is not a class• Students may get very different experiences

depending on what they desire to work on and ability to troubleshoot problems independently

• Team efforts aren’t “homework”. Robot design, business plans, and award essay submissions are more ‘real life’ in that they aren’t graded simply for meeting some set of minimum requirements

• “showing up” doesn’t automatically lead to high performance – students need some of their own discipline and initiative.

What to expect from the program

• There are lots of moving parts to our team• Students that are able to work independently and

come to mentors for assistance will be the ones

who learns the most

• There is ALWAYS something to do that’s

beneficial to the team, though it is not always

the most exciting

• The more parents that can help out and be involved, the more it allows our mentors and teachers to focus specifically on the skills they bring to the team

• There is a lot to take in a first year. Even very involved members/mentors may take a year to really get everything to “click”

What to expect from the program

• Summer/Fall and Spring are very different• Students ARE NOT expected to know robotics

or what they want to do

• There’s less designing/building during the fall.

Largely due to financial limitations, but also

partially due to time

• Offseason generally is more preparing and team outreach

• Being displaced from the robotics room for the summer

• Spring is generally a lot of building and competitions

Expected costs

• Bus/Hotel/food costs for competition: • $50 for competitions without hotels• Estimated $200-250 for events with hotels within driving distance

• Lunch money for long Saturdays meeting: • ~$75/semester. Parent booster will collect $75 all at once• Not intending to have summer food. Donations for drinks/snacks welcome and appreciated• Money goes towards snacks, drinks, napkins, in addition to meals• Cheaper and safer option than having students leave.• Can opt to bring your own lunch as well.

• New students:• Purchase of 3 team shirts (Thurs/Fri/Sat shirts). ~$40/polo, ~$15 x2/t-shirt• Safety Goggles – ~$5 (be sure to get ANSI approved)

• Veteran students:• Purchase of 1 team shirt (Fri) – approximately $15

• Occasional special events have costs associated

• For the year: ~$500-1000 for the year for 3 t-shirts, and ~25 lunches and between 2-4 events

• Please don’t let costs be a reason to not join the club. Every year we have 1 fundraiser that any funds raised can offset travel costs. Additionally talk to booster club as needed if finances are the limiting factor in participating on the team• Other fundraisers possible – sell raffle tickets for a items, car wash, etc.

Things to do

• Sign up on slack (students more so than parents – but parents welcome too!) – link available on website to request access

• School field trip paperwork available on Dr Myers (Turner) teacher website

• STIMS (student team information management system)• Need to have students on the roster to attend competitions – reduces

paperwork for everyone if you can sign them up via STIMS online (requires student and parent).

• System improved this past year, requires both student and parent emails

• https://my.firstinspires.org/stims/ - (opens late September)

Ways parents can help

• Pick up our kit of parts (likely from Katy, but

maybe from other location)

• Lunch Committee

• Fundraising (would your company support our

non-profit?)

• Tutoring

• Volunteering (such as field building, monitoring tool use, business plan, imagery, robot)

• CDL/Bus Driver?

• Receipt collection and logging (Saturdays during build season)

Fundraising things

• Amazon Smile• Add Pearland Robotic Booster Organization• Must shop at Amazon smile• Your prices don’t change, but amazon donates 0.5% of your purchase to us

• Randals• Unsure, but I think you can search and add Pearland Robotic Booster Organization

• Krogers• Pearland Robotic Booster organization or use Alternate ID of 281 281 5414

• Several companies financially support non-profits – ask if yours does! Contact Andrew Hartnett (via pearlandfrc@gmail.com) to get the necessary information to apply if your company does.

• We’ve done things like game night, car wash, raffle – but need parent support to make those things happen

What’s next?

• Go to our website: http://pearadox5414.weebly.com/join.html and follow instructions there

• Start attending meetings• Generally meeting Saturday 1-6• Try to keep http://pearadox5414.weebly.com/calendar.html up to date

• Attend Texas Robotics Invitational8900 Bellaire Blvd, Houston, TX 77036• Aiming to have new team members there from 10-12• Asking parents to bring new team members• We’ll engage new team members• Welcome to attend for full duration (8-6)

• Need to ensure we keep an appropriate chaperone/student ratio (at least 1:10). Please don’t drop off a student without checking with a teacher and ensure we have contact info