Servo - June 2011

The next generation getting the vision.

Max Bales, Greg Bales, and Ethan Arteaga with a bothead’s favorite tool handy.

man, struggling in school, brought to the top through building and fighting bots.

Eddy begins:

"Our science teacher, Mr. Stephen Hanrahan, is the one that has worked with our students and had the robotics program come alive …Kelvin Gomez came to Immaculate Conception Catholic School August ‘08. He was in sixth grade and his reading and mathematics skills were at a first grade level. Our program at Immaculate had not really worked with a student that was performing this low ... I decided to give him an opportunity, but I could not make any guarantees. Kelvin was accepted into our modified program for students with learning disabilities. He is a very respectful and proper young man, who always has a smile on his face and a kind word on his lips. Kelvin participated in various activities during the remainder of his sixth grade year.

Garcia also notes that Kelvin is a "kinesthetic and auditory learner." This means he learns better from hearing things repeated by others, and having his hands on the job. Sitting and reading isn't this kind of learner’s strong suit, but building robots sure seems to be!

Story #3: The Pink Team Helps the Thin Blue Line

Kelvin Gomez (left) and the team from Immaculate Conception Catholic School.

This story is summarized from a press release from the Brevard County, Florida School Board; the Pink Team's website, NASA, and teacher's blogs.

When Detective Christopher Cochie from the Rockledge Police Department, FL, first approached FIRST Robotic Competition (FRC) Team 233 ("The Pink Team") to help build a robot for his SWAT team, he had something fairly simple in mind, like a remote controlled miniature car with a camera mounded on the hood. The team took his ideas, added some of their own, and came back to him instead with a state-of-the-art robot that could climb up steps, trudge through mud, toss a phone, launch flash bangs, and do much more, which they dubbed the "PDbot."