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Mission Statement |
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| With the support of volunteer mentors who promote gracious professionalism, the mission of McKinley Robotics is to offer members multiple opportunities to enrich their educations through practical applications of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. | ||
McKinley High School Robotics Team Kika Mana #368
2008 Chairman’s Award Application
The Hawaii Regional is finally upon us and Team 368, Team Kika Mana, could not be more excited. The road to this regional all began in January 2007 where it was a treat to see our governor, the Honorable Linda Lingle, speaking at last year's FRC Kickoff live from Manchester, New Hampshire. In her remarks, she mentioned how FIRST student participants are truly the "hope for tomorrow" with the potential to do great things such as curing diseases or finding ways to produce clean drinking water for people throughout the world. She also spoke about how mentors are helping these future leaders and helping to make the world a better place. Upon her return to Hawaii, the excitement built when we learned that Dave Lavery of NASA promised financial support to bring a regional to our home state. With the determination of Governor Lingle, the Hawaii Regional was greenlighted for 2008. This meant a lot of work ahead of us and we were up to the challenge to do our part.
With a new regional sprouting up and only a year of preparation, one of the main goals was to recruit rookie teams from the islands and quick! It's hard to imagine that it's been 8 years since we were a rookie team, but that season involved some of the toughest fun we ever had. Our roots began in 1999 when we were introduced to the world of FIRST by Mr. Tom Dyson of the NASA Ames Research Center and Mr. Jason Morrella of the Cheesy-Poofs FIRST Robotics Team #254. Along with two students, their visit was the catalyst for change here at McKinley High School. Prior to their visit, our team competed in a local event known as The Electron Marathon. Our participation in the electric vehicle competition was met with great success for many years and was a valuable learning experience for our students. The time had come, however, to expand those educational opportunities and FIRST was the perfect venue. Our rookie year was both humbling and awe-inspiring. Upon arrival at the 2000 Silicon Valley Regional, we were quite overwhelmed and had very few expectations for ourselves. We were just happy to be there to soak in all the excitement. Beyond our wildest dreams, our first robotics competition resulted in our finishing as Regional Finalists. Needless to say, we were hooked on FIRST! This is the experience that we hope the 20 new Hawaii rookie teams will be able to have as well.
Going from only 4 participating Hawaii schools last year to 25 this year has been simultaneously scary and awesome. The first order of business after getting these schools committed was to get them prepared for the upcoming season. In September, our team mentors conducted a training session for rookie adult mentors from all across the state. They were given a crash course in pneumatics, electrical systems, software, hardware, machining, team organization, shipping, and a whole variety of other things. One of our captains also went to help demonstrate the kitbot to help allay rookie fears of not being able to produce a functional robot. Participants left much better informed and confident that they could get their rookie teams through the build season. Next, with the generous help of the State, one of our mentors organized getting bandsaws and drillpresses to the schools throughout the islands which needed them and participated in the safety training session for those teams who received machines. We have also helped teams in planning to get more heavy duty machinery like mills and lathes to further enhance their capabilities in future years of participation. To help get the new rookie teams prepared for competition mode, our team organized and ran the first ever Hawaii Vex Tournament in November. Rookie teams were able to get the experience of designing, prototyping, building and competing within a limited timeframe on the less intimidating Vex robotics platform. The responses we received were very positive and helped to build the rookie teams into cohesive units.
Throughout this build season, we have offered direct help to quite a number of schools. These include donating extra items in our inventory, creating and modifying parts which are difficult to obtain, offering programming expertise, helping with website creation, giving tips on crate assembly and shipping, assisting with procurement procedures (especially through school accounting offices), and visiting other teams to offer direct assistance. These teams include 359 (Waialua), 1378 (Hilo), 2024 (Waiakea), 2090 (Punahou), 2348 (Moanalua), 2437 (Sacred Hearts), 2438 (Iolani), 2439 (Baldwin), 2441 (Maryknoll), 2443 (Maui), 2445 (Kapolei), 2453 (Hawaii Baptist), and 2504 (Farrington). This accounts for over half of the Hawaii teams participating in the Hawaii Regional. Although our annual tradition is to always work up to the very last minute on our robot (usually with a 24 hour, non-stop push at the end), we were more than willing to set aside the time necessary to help make this season one that rookie teams would be able to cope with. We also hoped to make it one that would be fulfilling and encourage them to continue their participation beyond just this season. In the end, that all worked out for us because we were still somehow able to complete our robot earlier than we had ever done before.
In addition to helping other teams, we have also done our best to spread FIRST into the community. Within just the past year, we've been on or in numerous television shows, radio broadcasts, and newspaper articles. No matter how early in the morning, we were willing to zip our robot around town to bring more exposure to the FIRST program. We even left one of our robots overnight at one of the rookie schools to demonstrate at their parent night and the following day at their school assembly. We also did demonstrations for the National Science Board which advises the President and Congress, for our longtime sponsor Hawaiian Electric Company, at a holiday Tech Career Fair, at a science day for elementary school students, and at the Hawaii FIRST Lego League Competition. We had also hoped to mentor a FIRST Lego League Team this year. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond our control, the team we began mentoring failed to register for the Hawaii competition in time. We did, however, help the Hawaii FIRST Lego League competition expand from 24 teams last year to over 60 teams this year. Last year's competition location could not accomodate expansion, so we offered up our campus to host the competition. It was a huge success with hundreds of kids and thousands of people in attendance, including the Lieutenant Governor and the Mayor of Honolulu. All of our team members were glad that their labor helped bring the enjoyment of competition to so many more youngsters this season. Another way we helped to bring FIRST into the community was by hosting the Hawaii FIRST Robotics Competition Kickoff. Since it started at 5am Hawaii time, our team members gladly spent the night in our auditorium ready to greet all the Oahu teams as they came to watch the broadcast. We were joined by Governor Lingle as well as many legislators and CEOs who all showed their enthusiastic support for FIRST.
Besides welcoming new teams to the FIRST ranks this year, we also welcomed new team members into our team ranks as well. With many students graduating from our program last year, we were fortunate to have a large influx of new members and 75% of our current team is comprised of new members. Beginning in the summer, we have had many opportunities to bond as a 'new' team. We were able to double our machining capabilities, but due to limited space, we had to make room. Throughout the summer, our members learned how to knock down walls, remove floor tiles, prime and paint walls and ceilings, get rid of counters and sinks, and install new machinery. With that being worked on, we were also able to meet in small focus groups to prepare for the upcoming season in programming and robot construction. Also, to raise funds, we had to do a number of fundraisers. These included slaving away in grueling carwashes in the hot Hawaiian sun, manning concession booths for an educational conference held on our campus as well as the Hawaii FIRST Lego League Competition, and selling small toys for the holiday season called Hexbugs - little robotic creatures which react to touch and sound. All of this hard work helped to bond our team into the family unit that we are today.
It was very gracious of the Hawaii Regional Director, Mr. Alex Ho, to send a letter to our school principal, Dr. Peter Chun, with his words of kindness. In his message, he expressed the following: "Simply put, the 2008 FIRST Hawaii Regional Robotics Competition would not happen without the McKinley Robotics Team. The value of their knowledge and willingness to help others is priceless, and will probably make a bigger impact in furthering to inspire Hawaii students to pursue STEM education and careers than anything policy makers or anyone else are able to provide." While modesty does not allow us to go that far, we are certainly proud of the efforts we have put forth to make the Hawaii Regional and the teams competing therein as successful as possible. It is amazing how far we have come in just one year and one can only wonder how far we have yet to go in the years to come.