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.

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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.

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!

2017 SPONSORS

FINANCIAL SPONSORS   Provide TIME (volunteer), TALENT (in-kind contributions of parts or services),  TREASURE (funds), and/or TRAINING (including summer internships) for our students.

For the third year DS Solidworks Corp donates to Aldernating Current students licenses to use Solidworks Computer-Aided-Design Mechanical, Electrical and Composer software, each valued at $80,000.

For the fourth year, Shelton High School and District is our primary partner, providing us with meeting and storage space, and access to wood, metal, weld, and auto shops, and drafting room. The district Career Technology Education (CTE) department recruited Coach Wright (math teacher), and provides transportation to local competitions. In 2017 students raised travel funds through car washes and operating the concessions stand at Shelton High soccer games. During 2015-2016, CTE invested $10,000 capital primarily for robot parts and tools.

Onshape is a collaborative Computer-Aided-Design (CAD) software project. Using Onshape students designed supports for a gear climber in January and a robot cart in the fall. The six seat licenses are valued at $1500 each. Total donation value is $9000.

In 2017 OSPI awarded the Shelton High Robotics Club (ASB) a $6650 grant. Funds are applied towards our $10,866 entry fee in the Pacific Northwest District of FIRST Robotics Competition. In 2016 OSPI awarded us a $5670 grant. In 2015 OSPI awarded us a $4900 grant. The Washington State legislature is considering the 2017-2019 state funding level.

In 2017 Advanced Equipment Company donated a $5600 value towards the team's championship season via a practice facility and cash.  In four of the eleven days before bag and tag, the team practiced 81 matches at the Advanced Equipment Tumwater warehouse, 25 minutes from Shelton High School. This enabled students to modify their competition robot "Juniper" and to be the #1 team midway through their first competition at Mount Vernon.  Since 1978, Advance Equipment Company has worked to develop and perfect downstream equipment for the PVC pipe industry.

For the third year in a row the Community Foundation of South Puget Sound awarded Aldernating Current a $5000 grant.  In 2015 Team 4450 "Olympia Robotics Federation" invited us to apply for a dual grant from the Foundation. Since 1989 the Foundation supports local non-profits in Mason, Thurston, and Lewis counties.  In 2014 the foundation awarded $887,000 in grants; $100,000 went to Youth Development.

Dragonfly Media North West photographed, interviewed, and videoed Team 5295 for an audio-visual story about the team's recent success; from 35th at our 2016 Auburn competition to playoff Alliance Captain #7 at the 2017 Mount Vernon competition.  These professional services are valued at $4000.

Google donated $2500 towards our 2017 entry fee. Since 2014, Google provides server space to host our email frcteam5295@gmail.com and website http://frcteam5295aldernatingcurrent.blogspot.com/.

On March 17th, the Skokomish Tribe awarded FIRST Washington $2000 to benefit three FIRST robotic teams in the Shelton School District.

FIRST Washington [Robotics] awarded us a $1500 grant in 2017 and a $2000 grant in 2016. FIRSTWA.org inspires Washington State youth by engaging them in exciting mentor-based FIRST programs that build science, technology and engineering skills, inspire innovation, and foster well-rounded life capabilities such as self-confidence, communication, and leadership.

In a collaborative effort H2O JET trimmed aluminum plate donated by Taylor Shellfish Farms to the shape designed by Shelton High School student Tristin.  The parts support the climber on the 2017 competition robot "Juniper".  Students name robots after trees.

 For the 2016-2017 seasons the Green Diamond Fund awarded Aldernating Current a two-year grant of $2000 for a "Common Robotics Pit at North Mason High and Shelton High for Team 5295".

Oakland Bay Landscape Services donated: manufacturing know-how; metal tubing and frame welding for the robot cart; construction of the red half of our practice field using Pro-Build donated lumber, and a graphic artist to convert the students' new logo sketch to camera ready artwork; and food to feed curious minds.

4-H Youth Development of Mason County  is Aldernating Current's oldest community sponsor joining shortly after our November 11, 2013 birthday.  In March, the 4-H General Council pledged $1100 towards travel expenses should the robotics team qualify for the Pacific Northwest Championship in Spokane.  4-H empowers youth to reach their full potential, working and learning in partnership with caring adults.  4-H Robotics  Our sister 4-H Grays Harbor Team 11121 Fishing Business Incorporated (F.B.I.) qualified for the World Championship in Houston April 19-23.
 

Diamond Technology Innovations of north Olympia provides Aldernating Current with in-kind machining of detail parts for our competition robot. DTI is the only U.S. firm maching precision orifices from ruby, sapphires, and diamonds (hardest material on earth) for use in industrial manufacturing. Shelton Team 5295 "Aldernating Current" and Team 4450 "Olympia Robotics Federation" visited DTI in December 2016 and 2015.

For two years, the Shelton Pro-Build (114 E. Cedar St, Shelton WA 98584, 360-426-2611) donated lumber and supplies to build a practice court. Students perfect their robot before their first match. In 2017 Oakland Bay Landscape Services volunteer K.Hansen built a red airship and feed station while students built a rope climb, gear feeder and a low boiler.  In 2016 volunteers and the Shelton High wood shop built the practice hardware.

The Tumwater Fastenal (2733 Crites St SW, Tumwater WA 98512, 360-352-7128) donates 80/20 extrusion stock, joints and fasteners our students use to build the robot frame.

Through Washington FIRST Robotics, F5 Networks donated $500 towards our 2017 and 2016 registration fees. F5 Networks provides hardware, software, and virtual solutions help organizations address the relentless growth of voice, data, and video traffic.

BlackStarPrint.com has sponsored Team 5295 since our rookie year in 2014.  With substantial discounts on set-up on our tee-shirts, free banner and free stickers, the staff is extremely helpful.  In early March BlackStar turned a student sketch into our new logo shown in the above banner. For custom apparel, they turn student ideas into real marketing emblems. 

For the fourth year, Taylor Shellfish Farms (retail store 130 SE Lynch Road, Shelton WA 98584, 360-426-3300) provides Aldernating Current with raw aluminum stock (plate and extrusions) our students use to build our competition robot. The Taylor family is proud to grow high quality clams, oysters, mussels, and geoducks straight from tidelands across Western Washington and British Columbia.

Mason County Public Utility District offers non-profits free use of its auditorium. During the summer of 2016 4-H volunteer D.Rankin taught students Onshape computer-aided-design. Using Onshape, Jaeden led the student design of the robot cart and Tristin led the student design of the 2017 climber.

National Instruments gives a substantial $464 discount to FIRST Robotic Teams on its roboRIO.  This is the robot brain that executes the program code students write.
ANDREW HOSPADOR, an electrical engineer, volunteers his time and money for the Shelton High Robotics Team.  His background in process troubleshooting assists students building power and control circuits.  In 2017 and 2016 he donated parts and food to the team.


ALAN WALKER PE, a volunteer and Shelton High graduate, donates (since 2014) his time and money to the Shelton High Robotics Team competing as 4-H FIRST Team 5295 "Aldernating Current".  As a contract engineer, he designs, retrofits, and repairs aircraft structures.

For four years BIMBA donates pneumatic air cylinder rams to the Shelton High Robotics Team.

AlphaTest.com donated $100 to the team.  AlphaTest develops and manufactures small probes for the electronics industry. Owner Sandy Tarzwell is a board member of the Shelton School District.

AndyMark.com sells parts that FIRST Robotic Competition teams use to build robots.  AndyMark via its FIRST Choice coordinates the annual draft of $860 worth of robot parts to 3400 teams. 

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KNOWLEDGE SPONSORS   Aldernating Current seeks to copy the best practices of successful teams.

Team 4450 Olympia Robotics Federation helped create us and continually shares successful local collaboration strategies. Team 4450 (rookie year 2013) attended World Championships 2016, 2015 & 2013. In 2017 the Shelton team build the red half of a practice court while the Olympia team built the blue half.  The teams practice together at an Advanced Equipment warehouse at Mottman Industrial Park in Tumwater.

Team 230 Gaelhawks of Shelton High School in Shelton, Connecticut shares two decades of what works best. Team 230 (rookie year 1999) attends the World Championship often, most recently in 2016 & 2015.

Since Team 5295's 2014 rookie season, 4-H Team 3574 High Tekerz of Tuwila, Washington sponsors Aldernating Current's safety program. Our student safety captains modify and implement the safety program.  In our rookie year Aldernating Current won Hard Hat Pins, awarded to the runner-up of the Underwriters Laboratory Industrial Safety Award (Team 3574 won this at the 2012 Seattle Regional). Team 3574 (rookie year 2013) attended the World Championship in 2015 & 2013. 

Jan18: AM-Team Visits State Capitol 35th District Legislators PM-Room 809 Robot Development & Recruiting

On Monday, Martin Luther King Day (no school), students and mentors will visit Olympia to thank our representatives for supporting Mason County robotics. A.Walker organizing carpool & shirts.
State Capitol Parking
http://www.des.wa.gov/services/facilities/CapitolCampus/Pages/Parking.aspx
8:50am   Legislative Building: place robot on 3rd or 4th floor tables.
    (Building security is asking for us to “not run the bots” due to safety.)
9:00am   Palouse Room 112 (Legislative Building basement): Hello
Drop By Representative Drew MacEwen   424 John Obrien Building   
9:45am   Representative Dan Griffey   410 John Obrien Building
10:00am Sit in on Martin Luther King Day assembly.
10:45am Senator Tim Sheldon   312 Legislative Building
11:00am Return to Shelton High School Room 809 Robot Shop
Noon-7pm   Room 809   Robot Development; and Recruiting
In 2016 the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) awarded $5670 to Shelton School District. These funds paid the majority of our registration fee. In 2015 OSPI awarded Shelton School District $4900 (funds used for parts & tools). Team 5295 joins 20 other FIRST teams to thank legislators for supporting FIRST Robotics.  Team 1983 Skunkworks and Washington FIRST Robotics organized "FIRST Day" to thank our state legislature for the OSPI grants funds and hopefully increase budget funds for 2017.

2016 Game STRONGHOLD

2016 Game Animation
2016 Game Manual
2016 Playing Field

Using lumber donated by Pro-Build, and Team Version drawings, the Shelton High wood shop is building a Practice Field.