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2010
Five team members, along with a few students from
FRC team 2046, Bear Metal, travelled to the Boeing
Kent Space Center to help employees celebrate Boeing
Engineering Week. The skunks goal was to familiarize
Boeing employees with FIRST and to recruit
mentors. The skunks presented the 2009 robot, the
Stench, and even taught some employees how to to
drive the robot. Skunkworks was happy to help celebrate
Boeing Engineering Week, while spreading the message
of FIRST.
For more information on Boeing, please visit the Boeing
Website.
For more information on FRC Team 2046, please visit Bear
Metal's website.
The Skunks eagerly traveled
to Mountlake Terrace High School, to the FRC game
reveal and build season, hosted by FRC Team 1778.
All of our team got up bright and early to view
the seven o'clock game reveal and were very surprised
and excited for the 2010 FRC Game, BreakAway.
However, we put our brainstorming on hold in order
to assist rookie and "sophomore" teams with building
kit bots. Our team members helped many Washington
rookie and sophomore teams understand the basics
of their robot.
2009
Skunkworks hosted the Des Moines
FLL Competition at Aviation High School. Team members
volunteered to oversee the pit area, set up the
field, run teams to and from interviews, and two
of our alumni judged at the event. We had a great
time interacting with the students and encouraged
them to continue participating in FIRST.
We hope to someday see the students compete on
or with, or even against, our team in the future.
Rolls-Royce has awarded Griffin
Nicoll with a jet engine fan blade, which will
become an annual award, for his accomplishments
and has donated $5,000 to the school scholarship
fund. In describing why Rolls-Royce has decided
to donate this prestigious gift, "Primarily it
represents Rolls-Royce to us. It is really about
our key technology, where we invest, and this is
where we see synergy in terms of the high school.
It's about the investment in technology, the realization
of the importance of technology to the high school,
and innovative ideas. That's what we have really
noticed, and is very evident, in this school." said
a representative from Rolls Royce, the Director
of Customer Business, Boeing Division, Mark Thompson.
We are very proud of Griffin for his amazing gift!
For more information on the award, read the article
courtesy of the school newspaper, Phoenix
Flyer.
Skunkworks Robotics two VEX
teams competed in the VEX Jumpstart tournament
in Bellevue. We were able to advance into the qualifying
tournament, but did not make it to the semi-finals.
The game was called “Clean Sweep” and
was played on a 12’ by 12’ field. The
scoring system works by getting small, medium,
or large balls into specified goals or on the opposing
team’s field.
Skunkworks team members gave
a presentation at the Museum of Flight to the AIAA, American
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics ,
a STEM organization that promotes aerospace and
engineering. Our skunks presented to a large group
of professionals, representing Aviation High School
and Skunkworks Robotics. We presented our team's
organization layout and the story behind our robots.
Platt Electric Supply, a major
sponsor for FIRST, asked Skunkworks to
join them during a demo for FIRST sponsors.
The team was asked to represent FIRST teams
and spread the word about competitions, and possibly
acquire more sponsorship. By doing this, not only
were more companies made aware of FIRST and
its impact, but our students were able to interact
with professionals in the STEM community. Two students,
our coach, and the Stench presented to vendors
every 12 minutes, spreading the vision and mission
of FIRST and our team. Skunkworks is grateful
for the privilege of being the only team to represent FIRST,
and thanks Platt Electric Supply for the opportunity.
Our team raised money for our
season by putting on a Spaghetti Dinner with an
exciting Dessert Auction. We also had other special
items available to bid on like our world famous
yard work extravaganza, team photos, robotic team
shirts and a raffle to win a scenic flight around
Puget Sound. Always a wonderful event! See photos here.
We had over 250 students,
mentors and parents from all over the state come
to AHS to listen to Robotics-related seminars and
play a little with robots. Thanks to our students
and families who put on the event. We plan to do
this again!
Charles Rose, General Counsel
for the United States Department of Education (ED)
visited Aviation High School (AHS) on October 14
representing Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “Arne
says it only takes five to ten minutes to get a
sense of a school. I can tell already — this
is a top-level school,” said Rose. “This
is the kind of school that we should be shining
the light on at the federal level. I’m not
aware of any other in the country doing what you’re
doing here. I’m struck by the innovation.” Eighteen
AHS students participated in a “listening
session” with Rose and his teams from ED.
Federal education officials are conducting listening
sessions around the nation to learn about successful
schools and programs. Rose asked how AHS had successfully
attracted low-income and ethnically diverse students.
One aviation professional who mentors an AHS student
responded, “By engaging mentors from business
and industry, it doesn’t matter the size
of the parents’ bank accounts, all kids have
opportunities here — and mentors connect
the learning to real jobs.”
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