NEWS

4/18/06 Magazine Photo Release forms

For students who have not picked up their photo release forms for the upcoming magazine article in Library Media Connection, below are links so that you can print them out. Please return you signed forms by 4/19/05 so that our pictures can be published!.

• Minor Release Form
• Adult Release Form
  

3/31/06 Live with Lucas!

The Robo-Raiders have been selected to be part of the "Live with Lucas" morning show.

Here's what will be happening:

3/21/06 Robo-Raiders to Present at the
2007 South Carolina Association of School Librarians Annual Conference

Mentor Peggy Cwiakala received the following e-mail from Martha Taylor the president of SCASL,

3/20/06 Our Puppet Robby Wins 1st Place!

On Monday 3/20/06, The 2005-2006 Visual Literacy Festival, sponsored by Richland School District One's Instructional Technology Services, held their award ceremony for the puppet contest at Richland Mall. Our puppet "Robby Robo-Raider" won first place in the team competition. Hats off to Team #1398!

• Click here for pictures from the awards ceremony

3/14/06 Robo-Raider Picture in "American Libraries" Magazine

A picture  taken during the Richland One Technology Fair of mentor Peggy Cwiakala holding our puppet Robby, and Robo-Raiders Fredricka Dillard and Kim Martin will be included in the next issue of "American Libraries" magazine.  "American Libraries" is the offical magazine of the American Library Association (ALA).

3/06 Outreach for Next Generation

Mentor Peggy Cwiakala has prepared a PowerPoint presentation regarding the use of puppets and storytelling to engage elementary school children.

• Click here for the Puppetry/Story Telling presentation.
• Click here for the Puppetry Techniques presentation.

2/06 Robby Robo-Raider is Born!
Robo-Raiders Present at the Richland One Technology Fair

Last year the Robo-Raiders won the engineering inspiration award for their literacy efforts with young children. This year we decided to stay with that theme and expand on it. Consulting with Mrs. Cwiakala the concept of puppetry was introduced, but the question was how could we combine robotics and puppetry? A robot puppet of course!

We decided to use our design and digital electronics skills from PLTW to create a puppet with lights (LEDs) for a face. These lights would be arranged to create different expressions. Buttons would allow the puppeteer to select the desired face.

On Tuesday, February 21, 2006, after a long and hard labor by many a Robo-Raider, Robby Raider was born. And like a true Robo-Raider was out the next day promoting robotics at the Richland One Technology Fair. The objective of our puppet is a literacy and engineering outreach to young students. To further engage our future Robo-Raiders, a paper bag puppet with blinking eyes will be an activity that will turn those students into robot designers.

Kim Martin, Baichard Donald, and Fredricka Dillard presented to a packed audience and did an excellent job!  Robby will be entered in Richland One Visual Literacy Festival Puppetry Contest.

• Click Here for Pictures

2/06 The "Blue Pearl" Ships!

The Robo-Raiders have shipped their robot, the "Blue Pearl" to the Palmetto Regional.

• Click Here for Pictures.

2/06 Robo-Raiders Create 3D-Max Video

That is the theme of the Robo-Raiders first 3D-Max video. The video starts outside of a library. We zoom through the doors into the main entrance way. From there we enter the reading room and a robot speaks the theme. Next the robot is seen reading a book. The video transitions to a screen with the Team 1398 text, the FIRST logo, and the theme.  All this takes place in 30-seconds.
The two prior year’s attempts to complete this video were unsuccessful in the time frame allotted.

Animation Team

The video was well received at the technology fair. I’ve heard that they’ve already started thinking about next year’s video.

• Click Here to access the video.

9/05 Presented at the Midland's Chapter of  The Society for Technical Communication

The Robo-Raiders presented to a professional organization of technical communicators. This was an excellent way for them to learn about robotics and for us to learn about how important writing is.

• Click Here for pictures from the event.
• Click Here for to access their news letter "Verbatim"

9/05 RIF Rocks!

On During Richland School District One's annual Reading Is Fundamental celebration, the Robo-Raiders shold food and displayed their children's books.

• Click Here for pictures from the event.

9/05 Robo-Raiders Present at BellSouth Before a Prestigious Group

On September 1, 2005, Harry Lightsey, Bellsouth State President, invited Jeff Lacker, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, to be the guest speaker at a meeting held at Bellsouth’s Columbia location. Those in attendance included the Senate Finance Committee, the House Ways and Means committee and representatives from the Keenan Robo-Raiders.

Mr. Lightsey addressed the beginning of the meeting by informing the guests of the tremendous efforts and good works being performed by the education system in South Carolina.  A short FIRST video was presented giving the audience an understanding of what FIRST and its competition is all about. Bellsouth is a major supporter of FIRST. The floor was then turned over to the Robo-Raiders.

The Robo-Raiders were honored to be able to present their work in front of such a prestigious group.  Presenting were Jimmie Thompson, Stephanie Mitnaul, Kim Martin, and Tammy Adams. 

The students presented a 10-minute overview of the last two years of the team, explaining how a robot was designed, built, and utilized in competition. They also explained the goals of FIRST and how it affected the individuals on the team. The meeting was then turned over to Mr. Lacker.

Mr. Lacker started his presentation by congratulating the Robo-Raiders on their efforts. He also made mention that the methods they used, brain storming and so forth, looked very much like the methods he and his colleague’s use.  In that light, the experience was shaping these students for very real and practical work.

• Click Here for Pictures from the event.

8/05 Parents win the Robo-Raider Half-Hour of Power

This year’s Robo-Raider kick-off meeting included a competition between the students and their parents. A simplified version of the robotics competition, two teams of four members had to modify remote control cars to push balloons into pin line goals. The teams earned points by popping balloons and parking their vehicle. Players for the teams were selected by lottery.

The teams were given 15 minutes to make modifications to their vehicles. The parents won the coin toss and elected to drive the yellow car (with the battery cover present on the back of the remote control transmitter). The teams modified their cars using tape, straws, and cardboard.

The “heats” were broken into two rounds of 3 minutes each. Each team had 1 minute between rounds to make repairs or modifications. 
Points were earned by popping the balloons in the goal. Popping the team’s colored balloons won 10 points, while popping the opposing teams balloons only won 5 points. At the end of the match 50 points were awarded to the team that parked their vehicle in the designated parking space. Both teams managed to pop two of their balloons. The parents pulled off the win by parking their vehicle in the designated space and fending of the student team. Hats off to both teams for an excellent match!

7/05 Robo-Raiders at St. Andrews Branch of the RCPL

The Robo-Raiders presented to interested patrons ranging from grade school students to adults.

Click Here for pictures from the event.

7/05 Keenan Engineering Summer Camp includes Robots

This year the summer camp theme was Hovercrafts and Robots. Student's built Parallax Sumobots and competed.

5/6/05 Robo-Raiders Present at "Science Splash"

Sponsored by ETV, Science Splash focused on attracting girls into scienc and technical careers. From 10am until 4pm vistors had an array of exhibits to catch their interest.

• Click Here for Pictures
• Details about Science Splash
  
• Check out Know-It-All.org. It's a great site!
  

5/5/05 Robo-Raiders Present at "Space Day"

The Robo-Raiders presented at the Challenger Learning Center's Space Day. Our display included our literacy posters, awards, Project-Real display, a video of this year's FIRST challenge "Triple Play," along with this year's robot. We also had hands-on activities which included last year's robot, our tabletop triple play miniature robots, and rides on our hovercraft.

• For a description of all activities during space day click here.
• For picture from the event click here.

Selected Pictures from the 2005 Nationals

• 4/23/05: Selected Pictures with captions from the FIRST National Championships
• 4/23/05: FIRST National Championships Day 3, Set 1
• 4/23/05: FIRST National Championships Day 3, Set 2
• 4/22/05: FIRST National Championships Day 2, Set 1
• 4/22/05: FIRST National Championships Day 2, Set 2
• 4/21/05: FIRST National Championships Day 1, Set 1
• 4/21/05: FIRST National Championships Day 1, Set 2
• Exhibit: See what adults do with Legos! Also see some of the cars on display by GM.

3/25/05 New Resource Webpage

Peggy Cwiakala, team mentor and graduate student with the University Of South Carolina School of Library and Information Science has created a resourse website which includes webquests that all FIRST teams can use. This website was created as partial requirement for one of her graduate classes. She took that assignment as an opportunity to spread the message about FIRST. Thank you Peggy!

• Peggy's Resource Website

EVENTS

Upcoming Activities Plans are in the works to:

• ROBOT GOLF: using a TI-83 and a mobil base, student learn about estimating distance and angles. See us at the Palmetto Regional for a demonstration
  
• March 20, our robot puppet will be judged
  

3/30/06-4/1/06 Palmetto Regional

Visit us at the Palmetto Regional in Columbia, SC. In addition to competing we will have tables setup outside the event for,

• RoboRAIDERS Read: Checkout the books on robotics and pre-engineering. Your library is a wonderful source of not only books, but also other media on robotics. Here is a list of books available from the Richland County Public Library.
  
  
• Project Lead The Way (PLTW): A national pre-engineering organization and curriculum is used by Keenan. Come checkout some of our projects. Here is a list of schools utilizing PLTW in South Carolina.

Fundraisers

We have many fundraisers in the works.  Here are a few of our upcoming events:

• 3rd Annual Fish Fry:  TBA
• Car Washes: TBA