2011

August 2011

July 2011

MERKLEY HOLDS SENATE HEARING ON FEDERAL EDUCATION POLICY AT
PORTLAND ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

July 15,2011

Portland, OR – Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley visited Gilbert Heights Elementary school in the David Douglas School district this morning to host a Senate field hearing on education policy. The focus of the hearing was on the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and the importance of STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) for our children’s success in the global economy. This official hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) included witnesses from across Oregon who shared their input on education policy.

“It is great to be back in my old school district to hear from Oregonians on education issues facing Congress and specifically on how to replace No Child Left Behind with policies and strategies that will better serve our children’s’ education,” said Merkley “This is an opportunity for Oregonians to share Oregon know-how will contribute substantially to writing the bill that will guide our national education policy for years to come.”

The ESEA, most recently revamped under the moniker the “No Child Left Behind Act,” is the primary federal law governing K-12 education in America. The reauthorization bill is currently being developed through the Senate HELP Committee in a bipartisan fashion and testimony from today’s hearing will be distributed to all members of the Senate HELP Committee.

The Senator also heard testimony from Oregonians on the importance of STEM education for America’s competitiveness in the global economy. As a longtime advocate on the importance of STEM education, Senator Merkley announced his intent to introduce a bill to increase student access to courses in STEM subjects and provide additional resources to recruit, train, and support teachers of these subjects.

“Today’s global economy requires world-class science and math education for our children,” said Merkley. “If we want to improve America’s competitiveness, we must make crucial investments in the future of our children – and that means that STEM education must be a key component of our nation’s education policy.”

 

Marion County Fair

The Marion County Dairy Princess came by and Hadrian showed her how to drive the robot. Nice job Hadrian.

 

There was some joy riding on the robot at the fair and two of the axles were broke requiring some emergency repair.

Robots are not as indestructable as people like to think.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May 2011

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Multnomah County Fair a Big Success!

Thousands of people attended the Multnomah County Fair over Memorial Day held at Oaks Park. The weather was really good and it didn’t rain until we went home! We frequently had long lines of people waiting to drive the  robots.
We were surprised by 5 Miss America  Pagent contestants coming by .

 

 

 

Team 1432 driving away with a truck full of donations from PPM. (See how low those shocks are in the back?)

Thanks PPM!

Here is a link to PPM Technologies.  http://ppmtech.com/

This is what happens when you let a 6 year old drive the robot and don’t have your hand hovering over the emergency stop button.  This was at the Marion County Fair 2010 one of our many out reach activities. Thanks to our being there two new teams got started – one in Klamath Falls and one in Grants Pass. 2011 Summer season is upon us and the fairs start again May 28-30 with the Multnomah County Fair at Oaks Park, hope to see you there.

March 10.2011

Sorry haven’t updated this page there is stuff on the home page. We are working with the  team from Mexico and trying to get them a bus to go to the coast.  We are working on the “B” bot so we can take it to the Capital on the 22nd.  We weighed the robots yesterday and when we get to the competition we are going to have to get rid of 6 pounds. No mini bot for us. Hope everything else works.

Feb 26, 2011 Worked on robot 8 B – assembled legs, put the cow bells on it, drilled holes for the axial, set screws on axial adjusted. Thanks Cathy.

Day41,February17,2011: Yesterday we tested the almost but not quite complete arm.The motors we are using won’t do the job. Oh, and the hand is too heavy. Time for a Redesign. We experimented with various motors and came up with another plan for arm.

Day38, February 14,2011:  The arm supports are nearly done and the hand mechanism has been copied and reassembled.  A group of us went to an adult metal shop class to do some welding. Our second set of joysticks and the beaver costume arrived today.  With the help of a parent who has costuming experience there will be a metal beaver among the other mascots at the Memorial Coliseum March24-26.

Day36,February 12,2011:   David Ashton from The Sellwood Bee visited yesterday.  He wanted to see how our relocation was working out and how we were progressing with the build.  He took some pictures, asked a bunch of questions about the robot and how we were adjusting to our new home.  Later we took the robot upstairs for a test drive.  We also had a minor mishap in the kitchen.  While preparing drinks the dispenser jar cracked, leaving lemonade all over the prep table and the floor around it.  Today we worked on the arm support and refinements on the hand.

Day 29, February 5, 2011:  The Pillow blocks and bearings arrived. We spent Friday making parts to use in place of the universal joints that we ordered and never received.  We tested the drive train and electronics board tonight.  The machine moved, more or less as intended; but not completely.  We had some axial slippage.  We will disassemble tomorrow with the intent of correcting the problem.

Day 23, January 30, 2011:  We stopped work on the robot to get the basement ready for the Fire Marshall’s inspection only to find out that he isn’t coming after all.  Quick! Put everything back and start working on the robot! Actually he is coming , just not tomorrow as we had been told.  Oh well we needed to make a run to the dump anyway. Thomas says that he has refined the program.  Chase and Hadrian broke a Tap.  Hadrian made his first ever trip to the dump.  We are still waiting for 3 parts and any of our grant money.

Day 22, Jan,29,2011  George and Tommy spent about an hour and a half  recording receipts and balancing our accounts. Chase worked on arm connections, Hadrian started work on a sturdier hand, Thomas worked on programming , Ranmu  scouted other teams Patrick and Ejvin helped Tommy rebuild transmissions. It turns out that they work better if you use all the necessary parts.

Prototype Hand Test #1

Day16,Jan 23,2011:  We had a very quiet Saturday.  Only four kids were able to come. We welcomed Bronson Kim  from the Benson ftc team who will be helping us along with others on his team to build our mini-bot. Hadrian and Chris got a prototype of a hand running.  Thomas is working to get the computer to talk to the electronics board and Ranmu was busy scouting the other teams who will be competing in Portland.  More people should be coming today.

Day 14, Jan 21,2011:  We have just lost 1/3 of the build season!  Got kicked out at 7PM last night, the mentors wanted to go home.  They thought we should be doing our homework!  Next week is finals – we should be building robots!  Meeting today at noon and plan on putting in  a long one.  Hadrian is making good progress on the hand and Gabe, Chase, and Ramnu have arms.  Bryce Glen (Alum 2008) stopped by yesterday, he was in town for a doctor’s appointment but didn’t bring his camera so no new video.  We told him to be sure to bring it next time and to make it soon!  He says Corvallis is too far to be driving frequently.  Benson is coming by today.  Wonder what they’ll think of our new digs.

Day12,Jan19,2011:  On Monday we received the loan of a metal lathe and a milling machine. It was quite a production to get the lathe into the basement,but we managed it without any mishaps and both machines were bolted to the workbench. Having the use of these tools means we will be able to do even more of our own metalwork. Of course we will still need to go elsewhere to weld, it would not be safe in this space. We also got a load of refrigerator boxes to make models of arm designs. Chase  spent the day working with the CAD software with some input for Ejvin. Yesterday Gabe, Hadrian,Ranmu and Chase worked on various arm designs in cardboard.

Day9 – Jan,16,2001:  We are taking Sunday off to rest and get caught up on our school work, our laundry, whatever we’ve been neglecting. Yesterday Chase used the CAD software to assemble the mecanium  wheels virtually before they arrive. Thomas discussed a programming time-line and task list with Tim,one of our Boeing mentors. Gabe drew some design ideas for an arm. We mounted a sheet of pegboard to make finding the tools easier.

Day 7, Jan 14,2011:  A week gone.  The scoring wall is done. Gabe has a basic chassis built, Chase is making good progress on the CAD design.  We sure miss our mentor James but its good to know the same rules apply to mentors that apply to students,(School work first).  We’re all hitting the books hard Sunday so we don’t have to take a break.  Hope he can come back soon.  It will be good to have a day off but can’t wait to get back to it Monday and we have ALL day Monday to work.  We’re starting at 10 AM.

Day5,Jan12,2011:  Chase and Alan have been working on some design ideas on the white board. Matt came over today to tutor  Stephanie on using the web site tools. We brought in a load of plywood and 2x4s to finish the field elements. Thomas has finished wiring the electronics board and is ready for testing. Thank you Cathy for making dinner (lasagna) for everyone.

Day4,Jan11,2011:  Our team captain Roman called a planning meeting today.He and Ejvin (one of our Boeing mentors) Put together a calender that covers the whole north wall of the basement. It has all the different tasks needing to be done, deadlines, and everyone’s assignments. If we follow through with the plan we will be in good shape.

Day 1, Jan 8,2011:  We leave for kickoff at 6am, everyone is sleep deprived, piling into three cars, the LohKamp’s, WeaverLi’s, and Hubel’s, to Evergreen High School in Vancouver, WA.  Everyone must have dozed off at some point waiting for the game animation to be shown to us, but as soon as it was we were all coming up with ideas for the best scoring robots, the best defensive robots, and what the mini-bot should look like.  Some of the ideas were really good and some were not…

Day 0, Jan 7, 2011:  The team gathers at Knights of Pythias to stay the night in anticipation of kickoff.  They arrive at 6:00pm bearing computers, consoles, and games.  They bring sleeping bags even if no sleep happens and are so engrossed in their gaming that at first no one notices when the spaghetti is done.