Tag Archives: kick off

We’re The Talk Of The Town!

Posted on January 12, 2012 by | Leave a comment

K-Botics would like to thank our local media for covering the kickoff to the FIRST robotics season!  We love to get the word out in our local community about the interesting things we’re doing at KCVI, and explain to everyone about how great the FIRST Robotics program is.

We are excited to have an article in the Kingston This Week newspaper

Kingston.this.weekThere’s a great, lengthy, feature story on us and our good friends the Cyberfalcons, FIRST team 3710 from Frontenac Secondary School in the Kingston EMC newspaper

EMC EMC

and we were also aired on CKWS News.

Students: please remember to bring in any extra clippings you have so we can keep filling up our media binder and so we can post our news on bulletin boards around the school.

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Posted in 2012 Rebound Rumble

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Kickoff 2012: Rebound Rumble

Posted on January 7, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Day 1:

This morning we gathered with our friends the Cyberfalcons before the webcast to drive robots and get organized.  We were glad to see so many families and sponsors join us for kickoff.

demo

Some of the littlest visitors got to test drive the robot.  They did a really good job.

driving

We even had cardboard Mike here!mikeOur auditorium was a perfect location to watch the webcast.  We had the big screen and big sound this year!  Thanks to our talented A-V crew for getting that hooked up and running smoothly.

auditorium

We saw lots of famous people on the webcast….from former presidents, to TV celebrities, and will.i.am!

will.i.am

Finally, after a lot of waiting, the game was released.  We’re playing Rebound Rumble this year….a modified game of 3-on-3 basketball!

rebound rumble

Here’s the game animation that was released during the NASA webcast today.

After the game was released we enjoyed a delicious potluck lunch.  Thanks so much to everyone for bringing such a great variety of food, and thanks specially to the parents who organized the clean up!

lunch

After During lunch, we stocked up on sugar…

cupcakes marshmallow robots

….and started to discuss robot strategy

strategy

After lunch we watched the game video and read the rules enough to understand the game.  Then, after brainstorming a few strategies, we simulated the game in the gym.

coopertition

We have done this each year, and learn a lot from the activity.

game

We get a good idea of what offensive and defensive strategy might look like.  We get a feel for the timing of the game…and we have some fun being silly together.

hoops

We like having fun together.

friends

It looks like the Cyberfalcons like having fun together too.

Frontenac

It was fun simulating the robot game with them today.  We look forward to meeting them in the not so distant future in a warehouse to play the game with real robots!

Kit

We need to thank the Cyberfalcons for bringing our kit back to Kingston for us from Toronto.  We got right to work doing a careful inventory and labeling the new motors and jags with 2012, so they don’t get confused with the old ones.

label

It’s a very special job to use the label maker….

2012

We’ve outgrown our lab space for brainstorming sessions….

full house

…so we split up into smaller groups to brainstorm.

strategizing

We’re focused on what kinds of things we want our robot to be able to do.  We also want to consider how to score the most ranking points.  Finally we returned and presented our ideas to the larger group.

presenting

We have combined the ideas from the various groups into a list of objectives for our robot this year.  Tomorrow we’ll start to get some of the specifics worked out.

clean up

At the end of the day, we cleaned up the demo, and cleared the decks for tomorrow’s work session.

sleepy

Everyone’s been sent home to get a good night’s sleep, and to dream up great robot designs!  We’ll be at KCVI (room 107) tomorrow from 10-6.

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Posted in 2012 Rebound Rumble

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Kickoff 2012

Posted on January 7, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Hello Everyone–WELCOME TO KICKOFF 2012!!!!

We’re all at KCVI right now kicking off with the Cyberfalcons.  If you’re in the area, please come visit us!  You’ll find us in the auditorium (2nd floor), watching the kickoff on the big screen at 10:00AM

If you’re not able to join in the fun in person, please follow along online courtesy of NASA TV. (viewing options)kickoff

You can follow along on twitter too.  Use #omgrobots for general FIRST chatter, or #frcko for kickoff specific comments.  We tweet from @frc2809 and the cyberfalcons tweet from @fsscyberfalcons.

After today our blog will be showing daily updates to keep all of you informed about our progress.  Of course, you are welcome to come to KCVI and see us in person!

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Posted in 2012 Rebound Rumble

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Who’s Coming to Kickoff

Posted on January 5, 2012 by | Leave a comment

We know you’re getting excited for kickoff….
Here are some of the people you’ll see on the webcast!

colbert

Stephen Colbert source:www.comedycentral.com

bush

George W. Bush source:www.telegraph.co.uk

bill clinton

Bill Clinton source:www.nypost.com

will.i.am

will.i.am source:www.inquisitr.com

Dean Kamen

Dean Kamen source:www.chicagoideas.com

Woodie Flowers

Woodie Flowers

And many more! For the complete list check out this site.

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Posted in Misc.

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Important Kickoff Information

Posted on January 1, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Kickoff is coming soon!!

The K-Botics and Cyberfalcon teams will be meeting on Saturday January 7th at KCVI (235 Frontenac Street) from 9:00AM until around 6:00PM. Family and friends are also welcome to join us!

Remember that we’re having a potluck lunch and snacks, so please remember to bring something to share (robotic themed if possible).

Note: some team members are vegetarian, and some have nut and dairy allergies.

Morning Agenda: 

9:00-10:00 meet and greet, drive robots around the halls of the school, prepare for the webcast

10:00-12:00 watch the webcast (in the auditorium, 2nd floor)  Note: the exciting part will probably be around 11:00 or 11:30 when the game will be announced.

12:00-1:00 potluck lunch in the foods room (2nd floor)

Afternoon:

  • safety test–for K-Botics members
  • game simulation (playing robots in the gym)
  • rule reading
  • general strategizing
  • brainstorming in small and large groups

Some of us will be experiencing Kickoff in Toronto.  We’ll have K-Bots, Cyberfalcons, and members of our rookie team from Cobourg together as the game is revealed.  When they come back to team headquarters they’ll bring back the kit-of-parts, and the building will begin!

It’s going to be an exciting 6 weeks.  Please get lots of sleep now, and finish all your homework!!

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Posted in 2011 skill building

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Mock Kickoff

Posted on December 22, 2011 by | Leave a comment

To prepare for what we know will be a very fun and hectic day on January 7th, we decided to host a mock kickoff during our robotics meeting today.  Several of our veteran team members took the lead, deciding that we would analyze the game from 2008 “Overdrive”.  Since K-Botics didn’t exist in 2008, the game was new to us all.

watching animation

We showed the game animation….

Each kickoff culminates with the release of the game animation for the new challenge.

After watching the animation a few times, and confirming that everyone knew how to score points, we headed to the back of the school to “play robots”, our favourite way to simulate the game.  Our phys-ed department was kind enough to let us borrow exercise balls to help with our simulation.playing robots

It’s lots of fun to be robots!  Some of us are pretty energetic robots!

robots

We broke into small groups and, each armed with a package of rules, brainstormed strategies to play the game.

discussion

We followed up with a group discussion to share all of our ideas together.

sharing

Finally, we fast forwarded to watch videos of some of the successful robots at the 2008 competition.  Some were pretty cool!

To go along with our mock-kickoff festivities, we enjoyed a cake!

cake

We love it when parents bring us snacks.cake

Today we had some crazy characters in our midst.  Here’s an “engineer”….

costume

…and the “right hand rule gang”….fresh out of physics class.

right hand rule gang

After our mock-kickoff we took time to get things organized.  The next time we’ll be back here will be the big day!

organizing

Here’s some advice from Henry:  Sleep lots now, and get your homework done early!

nice jacket

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Posted in 2011 skill building

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Logomotion

Posted on January 8, 2011 by | 3 Comments

It was a great day today at KCVI.  We gathered before the webcast to meet and mingle with the rookies: team 3710 from Frontenac Secondary School.  Many of our K-Bots are rookies too, so there was definitely a buzz in the room.

“I’m so excited and I don’ t know what for!” -Dominick, grade 9

We showed our robot from last year, and some of the Cyber Falcons took a turn at driving it around the halls.  It will be great at the end of build when we can practice together sometime!

There were reporters for local newspapers and local TV news–Look for the articles, and the broadcasts!

Pretty soon the game was revealed, and we learned what we’d be focused on for the next 6 weeks.  Here’s the animation:

After a pot luck lunch, with excellent robot-themed foods…

kickoff

First Prize: this looks JUST like last year's robot!

cookies

second prize: FIRST logo--very appropriate for this year!

cupcakes

cupcakes were purple, blue and white inside--those are our colours

…we read through the rules in small groups to make sure that we understood all of the restrictions and dimensions and scoring rules.game interpretationIt is important to read everything in great detail so we can make good choices in our design.

rules

rulesThen we took over part of the library to simulate the game-play.

mockfieldWe enjoy this time to “be robots”.  We get a chance to be a little silly, and it really helps us understand what the game is all about.  simulation

Hula-hoops were good substitute for the game pieces, and we were great racks, poles, robots and mini-robots.  simulation

Later in the afternoon we divided up into small groups to brainstorm what we want the robot to be able to do.

brainstormWe joined back together and presented our ideas.

brainstorm

In our discussions we considered different scoring options, talked about speed and maneuverability, and discussed ideas for the mini-bot.

brainstorm“I think the mini-bot should be fast and small just like me!” -Paige, grade 9

kickoffOur Toronto kick-off crew arrived towards the end of the day.  It was so exciting to see our game pieces, and to hear their ideas of how to play the game.

logomotionWe are going to meet tomorrow at 9:00AM until 5:00PM to continue with our brainstorming and to decide what ideas we will prototype.

How was your Kick Off?

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Posted in 2011 Logomotion

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Welcome To Kick Off

Posted on January 8, 2011 by | Leave a comment

The day is finally here!  We’re so excited to meet the Cyber Falcons from Frontenac Secondary School, team 3710.  It’s fun to share Kick Off excitement with another group.

You can follow along from home!  The webcast is on NASA TV from 10:30 until 12:30.

People will be tweeting about the event with the hashtag #frcko or #omgkickoff

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Posted in 2011 Logomotion

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Two More Sleeps

Posted on January 6, 2011 by | Leave a comment

There are just two more sleeps until Kick Off and we’re all really excited!  The Beta-Testing that we’ve been doing is wrapping up, and our programming team is excited about getting started with the new challenge.

excited programmers

excited programmers

We had a talented group of sign makers create many signs to welcome our friends and family, and other community members to our Kick Off festivities.

artists at workWe’re hoping for good weather so that we can fill our cafeteria with excitement on Saturday.

welcome

A particularly warm welcome goes out to our new friends the Cyber Falcons, team 3710 from Frontenac Secondary School who will be joining us for Kick Off this year.

We’re still trying to finish up our Skills robot, as all work will halt on that one until FRC build season is done.  Improvements are still being made, and we’re proud of all that we’ve done so far.

skills

Identical drills on each side will help make our robot drive straight!  Getting everything attached is harder than it looks though.skills

Sometimes it takes a team to get things working the way they should.teamworkOur safety glasses have found a new home now too!  We have a wall hanging with many pockets all made from fleece.  Instructions can be found here.  This will hopefully keep us from losing/scratching our glasses.

We are continuing our preparations for Kick Off.  We’ll post a link to the webcast, and the twitter feed so everyone can follow along with us.  Enjoy your two more sleeps!

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Posted in 2011 Logomotion

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Pot Luck Sign Up

Posted on January 5, 2011 by | Leave a comment

We have 12 people signed up for potluck so far…. I know many more are wondering what to bring.  To give you an idea, these are the results of the sign up.  Please add your information to the online sign up form here

appetizer  (2)

salad          (3)

main dish  (3)

dessert       (4)

drinks        (0)

Remember to bring your own cutlery and dishes.  Bring a water bottle too!

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Posted in 2011 Logomotion

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