RoboRaiders

Robo-Raiders Resources
Homepage

Project REAL: Raider Engineering and Academic Leadership
W. J. Keenan High School - Columbia, SC

Note: This page was created by Librarian Peggy Cwiakala when she was completing coursework for her Masters of Library and Information Science at The University of South Carolina (under supervision of Professor Martha Taylor). Ms.Cwiakala is a team mentor for the Robo-Raiders and is currently a Doctoral student. (Peggy is pictured lower right).

Welcome to the Robo-Raiders Resource page. Here you will find information about robots to round out your knowledge. You will also find a task for researching ways to improve your team's community outreach. (See: Webquest tasks)

New

Mentoring/Outreach: Puppet and Storytelling PowerPoint is now available.

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

Introduction

When I started working with the Robo-Raiders I was already an established robot fan. Married to an engineer, I worked as a professor and technical writer and my interests included robotics. My work with Keenan has been preparing students as they give presentations. I grew up watching and reading about robots. As a graduate student in Library Science, I know there are sites, resources, books and movies to share with my favorite people. (That's you!)

What I realized along the way is that I come from another generation (in other words, I'm older than High School age) and not everyone knows about the same things I do.

Here's a hint...The robot that gave me nightmares gave Sigourney Weaver a headache in Alien.

The Links Page

I found that beginning students couldn't always answer my basic questions. I wanted to help!

Do you want to know what industries use robots?
I know you know how to build a robot... but do you know the uses for robots?
How about the three laws of Robotics?

There has been so much thought about robots - indeed, there is a world of information out there for you. People the world over are considering the ethics involved and they are creating artwork, writing news, making robot toys -- it's amazing.

Think of this brave new world in terms of the knowledge that will keep you from redesigning the wheel.

Here's something else for you to think about. You will be asking parents and industry leaders for money to support your efforts. Make them comfortable by knowing some references from their past - know a little about the books and movies that introduced robots to them. In that way you will feel more at ease. You need to become the expert in your chosen field.

You will be making presentations in libraries and talking to various audiences. I believe you will be more successful raising money and support by being "Culturally literate" about robots.

There is a lot about the world of robots that can aid you as you plan out presentations for different audiences, and this necessarily includes trivia that is just plain fun.

On the Resources Page I have added useful links for the serious Robotics' fan. You may want more background information on where to get parts. Perhaps you would like to know what books our local library in Columbia has for your younger brother or sister. For example, I have included a list of those books.

This site is designed to help you do research so that you can have a broader base of knowledge to share with potential friends, family and financial supporters. Good luck! I hope you will have great success raising money, contacting other teams and sharing this information as an act of "Gracious Professionalism"!

Webquest Tasks

And that brings me to the task part of this page, designed specifically for Keenan, but useful for any other FIRST team. At Keenan, one of the things that we need to do is study the "Best Practices" of other, more established High School Robotics teams. Using the FIRST Map page, you can visit their sites and read about their efforts. Click here for all the details.