Team 5295 Aldernating Current

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Hunter & Jaeden Selected Dean's List Semi-Finalists

On February 11th, mentors of "Aldernating Current" nominated Hunter and Jaeden as the team's two Dean's List Semi-Finalists.

In an effort to recognize the leadership and dedication of FIRST's most outstanding secondary school students, the Kamen family sponsors awards for selected 10th or 11th grade students known as the Dean's List.  Since its introduction in 2010, the FIRST Dean's List Award has attracted the attention of prestigious colleges and universities who desire to have FIRST Dean's List students apply for admissions.

Criteria for selection of the FIRST Robotics Competition Dean’s List Award includes a student’s: a) demonstrated leadership and commitment to the ideals of FIRST; b) effectiveness at increasing awareness of FIRST in the school and community ; c) interest in and passion for a long-term commitment to FIRST; d) overall individual contribution to their team; e) technical expertise and passion; f) entrepreneurship and creativity; f) ability to motivate and lead fellow team members.

Similar to the very prestigious National Merit Scholarship Award, there are three (3) levels of FIRST Dean’s List Award students: Semi-Finalists nominated by team mentors; Finalists selected at the Pacific Northwest Championship; and Winners awarded at the World Championship.

In 2015, mentors selected Semi-Finalists Kiery (then Electrical Lead sophomore at Shelton High) and Todd (then Marketing & Graphics Lead sophomore at North Mason High).  Based on the mentor's nomination and her interview at district, judges selected Kiery for consideration at the Pacific Northwest Championship. Judges there consider the mentors nomination and judge notes from the district competition. No interview is done. Kiery did not advance to the World Championship.

Hunter and Jaeden will be interviewed for 5-10 minutes at our Auburn Mountainview district competition March 3-5.

Hunter in his junior year at Shelton High School (10th-12th grade). His initiative and level of responsibility make him one of our three key team leaders.

Hunter became our Lead Programmer gradually. He spoke with the returning programmers and watched last year’s game matches. After discussing the pros and cons of each programming language with the other programmers, Hunter persuaded them to write code in JAVA this year.

After the team moved into the auto shop, Hunter took part in our autumn inventory. As the Lead Programmer, Hunter is aware of the parts needed to complete the robot. He notifies our Buyer when we are short a part.

Hunter is our public face at Mason County 4-H Community Days which occur once a quarter. He patiently explains the controls to our young audience (ages 4 to 13) and lets them drive our testbed robot.

On an outreach to North Mason High School, we recruited a new 9th grade programmer. Hunter engaged the young man, assessed his programming skills, and gave him a basic programming assignment.

Hunter and other students visited the offices of their 35th District legislators in Olympia. He shared that much learning occurs when failures become success.

As a student member of the DECA [business] Club at Shelton High, Hunter improves our team business plan.

The following are Hunter’s words.

“Why did I join robotics? Robotics is a challenge. You will learn something if you try to do something very difficult or even seemingly impossible. If you don't first succeed, just follow the old adage ‘try, try, try again’.”

“I see robotics as a wealth of challenges and knowledge. Robotics is a continual never ending series of challenges. After one challenge is complete, two or three more show up even if you don’t initially see them. As you learn, you learn how much more there is still to learn.”

“What has robotics taught me? In the short time I have been in robotics I have honestly learned so much: working as a team; learning that other opinions are there; and that your opinions aren’t always better. A saying I have seen before is ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far go together.’ At the last meeting I took a glance around: I saw Jaeden and his dad working on the robot frame and mechanics; Kiery soldering on the electrical joints; and me cutting and connecting the wires, ready to jump on programming once wiring was done. It really brought it all into reality. We are a team and would only work as a team.”

“Even though I specialize in programming, I am learning to do everything involved in robotics. I now attempt to master the next closely related task to programming which is wiring and soldering.”

“The team functions as a team only if we help each other. I see a value that can be put towards improving our team in everything I learn. To me the team gave me the opportunity to join-in and build robots and be a part of something that I could never do myself. In return, I see that the team deserves that commitment. I fully commit myself to robotics by constantly learning more about anything that could ever slightly relate to robotics. The way I see it is my programming is my personal contribution to the team as much as everything I learn from them is their contribution to me.”


Jaeden is in his sophmore year at Shelton High School (10th-12th grade). His initiative and level of responsibility make him one of our three key team leaders.

Jaeden’s developed his passion towards robotics as part of the FIRST Technical Challenge Team 7979 “T-Wolves” at Oakland Bay Junior High (8th-9th grade). He intuitively understands how his passions can help the team. Jaeden serves the team as a robot designer, Build Captain, Pit Chief, and primary driver.

His initiative and enthusiasm are remarkable.  Our primary high school suggested moving the team storage closet into a 12’ x 18’ cage in the auto shop.  Without prompting, Jaeden oversaw the cleanup of the cage.  He made sure the team had moved over all our robot parts, tools, and marketing aids.

Jaeden loves to sort. He is always collecting similar parts and finding them a home: a box or tote on an appropriate shelf. Tools are collected in the team tool chest. His pursuit of gracious professionalism is incorporated into how he organizes our pit. Jaeden’s mindset is that the pit crew must also have easy access to donate parts or lend tools out to other teams during competitions. He includes the ideas of the other students and shares the team’s preferred storage system with his fellow team members.

Jaeden’s initiative helped the team recover from no team meetings during September. The team did not have a coach until mid-October. Per school policy we could not meet until we had a school district staff member as our coach.

Jaeden is a very fierce advocate for design ideas. He articulates his ideas very well and does not shrink when authority figures suggest an alternate idea. He encourages other team members to clarify their design ideas. This helps the team find the optimum design.

Jaeden is a self-starter. He taught himself how to program and wire a robot. With the larger robots in FIRST Robotics Competition, Jaeden is learning how structural members handle tension and shear loads.

He often invests time at home investigating robot part options such as the best vendor for tank treads. At home he also builds mockups or actual detail parts.

Jaeden assumed the role of Build Captain quite easily.  He is a natural leader. Jaeden is very aware that many aspects of the robot are dependent on each another and strives to clearly communicate with the programming, electrical, and inventory leads.

At the heart of Jaeden’s passion is a personal feeling to share his skills and abilities “because others were gracious enough to help me become who I am”. The circle of gracious professionalism continues, students one by one sharing their skills with others. With his effort to Jaeden demonstrates his commitment to the ideals of FIRST.

Monday, February 8, 2016

DONATE

If you wish to donate your TREASURE (cash), pick one of the options below.
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These funds also go to our Team FRC 5295 booster account at FIRST Washington. Online donations subject to a 4% service fee.
https://www.gifttool.com/donations/Donate?ID=2255&AID=4064
Want To Support A Specific Team? Enter Team Number: "Team FRC 5295" so our booster account gets credit for your donation.
W-9: Click to see FIRST Washington's Tax Exempt Status
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Checks payable to "FIRST Washington"
Memo line must state "Team FRC 5295" so our booster account gets credit for your donation.
Mail to FIRST Washington
               21238 68th Ave So
               Kent WA 98032
W-9: Click to see FIRST Washington's Tax Exempt Status
Please notify AlanWalker@earthlink.net or AndyH3626@gmail.com that you sent a check.

There are three types of donations: Time, Talents, and Treasure. If you wish to donate your TIME (volunteer hours), or your TALENTS (in-kind parts and services, or a summer internship for our students), contact AlanWalker@earthlink.net. During winter build and spring competition, students typically perform marketing and robotics team tasks for 20 hours a week.

Friday, February 5, 2016

Feb.8-9-10 Help Build Medieval Castle at Shelton High

Come and help build a wood mockup of a medieval castle!

Volunteers will meet in the wood shop of Shelton High Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from 2:30pm-5:00pm. Pro-Build provides the lumber and supplies.  Shoppers Weekly printed 11"x17" drawings. Student team members will then test their competition robot against the wood mock-ups.

Successful Marketing Brings New Sponsors

New sponsors in the last month include Fastenal (Tumwater),  Pro-Build (Shelton), and  Shoppers Weekly (Shelton). For the complete list, see the Sponsors page. News articles will soon appear in the  Mason County Journal (Shelton) and Mason Life (a Kitsap Sun publication). Thank you Marketing Team!