I have taught the past 20 years while serving as co-head coach for our FIRST Robotics. Coaching our team is still the most rewarding part of my job. I consider the hundreds of extra hours that I put into FIRST each year to be time very well spent.
We pride ourselves on the fact that if you are willing to put in the time and come with an open mind, there is a place for you no matter your interests.
Our team is currently composed of about 50 highly motivated students representing a diverse cross section of the high school population. We have academic "high flying" students. We have students who love building things with their hands. And we have everyone in between. Our team is "mentor-nurtured and student-driven" One of the things I am most proud about is the level of self-direction/leadership that students on the team show. The team is run by 5 student officers and 10 other student leaders in discipline areas ranging from mechanical engineering to programming to youth outreach to archiving. Our students have been cited by our Board of Education as models for our school's Vision of the Graduate. In short, they rock!
My Project
The game our creation will compete in is different each year. In January we learn the game rules and then we have only 6 weeks to design and build a competitive robot. Our team strongly believes in students taking the lead in our engineering design process. Due to our constraints, we have often had to rely on mentors to take our designs and make parts from our students design files using their machines at work.
Having 3D printers, a hand brake and some tablets to run associated software will allow our students make their own parts on site.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mr. Barron and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.