DEWBOT XI Build

The true raison d'être for FRC is found during build season, not in competition. This is where you learn. Pressure is high. Here you face your biggest challenges, and either overcome them, or are overcome by them. Build season is the lesson; competition is simply the exam.

Students join our team throughout the year, and most see competitions before build season, especially off-season events. Still, these students are rookies until they have passed through their first build season. Trial by fire.

Or perhaps, trial by ice this year. We were extremely fortunate to lose only four meeting days due to weather this build season. The season saw four major storms, including an ice storm which knocked out power for some people on the team (including Kelloms, Weissmans and McKowns) for five days! Fortunately, the TCHS lost power for only a day and a bit, so only one meeting lost.

This page contains a day by day breakdown of what we did. Dates hyper-links go to the corresponding photo gallery.

Kickoff

We attended kick-off at Upper Darby High School (home of old friends team 357 Royal Assault)
Clem McKown gave a workshop on Practical Pneumatics
Returning to TCHS, we went through game rules
then engaged in several rounds of Recycle Rush using StudentBots on a simulated field and reviewed the results