Clean Sweep

For the 2009-2010 VEX Robotics Competition we will be playing Clean Sweep. You can also watch this Clean Sweep Video. The roboteers will be in groups of 4-5 building VEX Robots to compete against other teams. Our first competion is December 5, 2009.

We work in two 12 week cycles, the first cycle is listed below, the second is Clean Sweep 2010. If the students are interested we will do a third 12 week cycle from mid-March until the end of school.

The page Clean Sweep Build Season has pictures from our build nights.

Schedule

Week 0 - September 16: Mentor Only Night an introduction for mentors to the game and the schedule for the season. If you want to be a Mentor or you are an interested parent please come! (No roboteers please, they start the next week) Mentor Workshops start soon!
Week 1 - September 23: Righty tighty Lefty Loosey an introduction to VEX robotics, parts and beginning assembly instruction. We will see and drive some robots, go over the major parts, look at all the mechanical parts and get basic assembly instruction.
Week 2 - September 30: Drive train Part 1 what is a drive train, what kind of drive trains are their, which ones are best for our robot. We will begin building a number of different drive bases to practice with
Week 3 - October 7: Drive train Part 2 more on drive trains and a chance to finish our robots.
Week 4 - October 14: Grippers and grabbers now that our drive trains are done, it's time to think about how to grab and move items (like the balls in Clean Sweep.) We will be building a simple gripper to practice with.
Week 5 - October 21: Lifters to score points in most games you need to move balls and cubes up off the floor. We will be looking at different lifters and how they can be used.
Week 6 - October 28: Build Night Our first 100% build night creating our new robot; Week One of programmer training. For students interested in programming we will start programmer training for the next three sessions. You will need a laptop!
Week 7 - November 4: Build Night; Week Two of programmer training
Week 8 - November 11: Build Night; Week Three of programmer training; Clean Sweep Newsletter 11 November
Week 9 - November 18: Build Night; Clean Sweep Newsletter 18 November
November 24: Build Night; Clean Sweep Newsletter 24 November
November 25: Off for Thanksgiving Break
Week 10 - December 2: Lets get ready for our first competition! We will be completing our robots and packing up for our first event of the year at Penn State Abington.
December 3: An extra build night for the roboteers to make any last moment changes
December 5: Competition at Penn State Abington. We will leave the school at 6:55AM and be back by 5:30 PM. This is our first chance to drive against other robot teams.
Week 11 - December 9: Lessons learned we will go over what we learned and discuss how we can improve our robots. This is the last formal night until after New Years.
December 16: Optional Build Night With the large number of holiday activities this is an optional build night. The building will be open but we expect attendance will be light.
December 23: Off for the Holiday Break we are off until January 6. We start the second half of our season when we come back!

Questions

I can only come for part of the time, is that OK? What happens if I miss a session?: Sure, we are there for 2 hours so attending for part of a session isn't a problem. You need to remember that things will change on the robot while you are not there, so don't be upset / angry that the team made design decisions while you are gone.
My parents or a relative is really into stuff like this, can they come?: YES! We would love to have them come. We even offer VEX Mentor Workshops on Tuesday nights to help them learn about the robots.
I can't come until later in the season.: No problem, we have special starter kits that we will train you on the robot parts with. Once you get some skills down you'll join one of the teams. Our last competition is in April so there is lots of time for you to join.
I'm a girl, can I come?: YES! We have two All Girl teams set up and ready for you to join.
I'm a home schooler can I come?: Any student in 7th to 12th grade can come and build robots with us.

Newsletters

We try to publish a weekly summary for all the parents, those newsletters are here:

Clean Sweep

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