Granite City Gearheads

Winding down

sarah — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 21:20:13 +0000

We are getting ready for the summer! Three parades this summer Waite Park, St. Cloud and St. Joe. With preparing for the summer, we are getting ready for 8th grade orientation at Apollo. Creating and editing videos, getting ready and making a hoop to show off our shooting skils. We placed 58th place out of 63 teams at competition. We got 6 Minnesota State High School League Points, but we did not qualitfy for the state tournament. One of the greatest moments at Competition, was our balancing skills. It was our last match on the friday night, we got two of the wheels off the bridge and one that didn't really look like it is there at all and one touching the bridge. Thanks to team 525, we still earned points for the balance.

WE ARRIVED!

sarah — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:13:20 +0000

We made it down to the Twin Cities for our compentition. We begin tommorrow (early!) by getting it ready for Friday. On Thursday, we begin to set up our pit and begin praitice matches. On Thursday, you can begin to watch a live feed; thanks to to the Fighting Calculators Team 2175.

Here is it below!

http://robotics.mnmsa.org/webcast/

On Friday, We start real matches. On Saturday, There is the final matches.

The second to last Weekend in Build Season!

sarah — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 23:01:16 +0000

Wow! We got a ton of stuff done with our Robot, this weekend. We got our tower welded by Kenny and it has it the holes drilled to bolt to our robot. We are waiting on the wheels for it! We came in on Sunday to work, and we got the Plexiglass cut and ready and almost ready for wiring!

Build Season 2012

B. Vogel — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 03:12:18 +0000

Build season is upon us as we start our journey to make a robot for this years FIRST Robotics Competition: Rebound Rumble.

Rebound Rumble is alot like basketball, the main difference is the number of hoops. Rebound Rumble is played with 4 hoops placed at different heights. 1 low hoop, 2 middle hoops, and 1 high hoop. The points will depend on what hoop(s) in which the robot places the foam basketball.

New this year, Microsoft donated a Kinect to every robotics team. Teams can use the Kinect to control the robot at the beginning of the competition. Afterwards, human players take control of the robot, one team player, placed at the opposite end of the field will give the robot the basketballs. There is also a bump(for lack of a better word) where robots may either use one of the three bridge/platforms to get across or have wheels capable of getting over.

The end challenge is to balance your robot on an unsteady platform, the more robots balanced on the platform, the more points. There may be up to 3 robots on the platform.

To see a better explination and a visual of this years objective, FIRST has put the animation on their youtube which can be found here.

Good luck FRC teams! Go Build Season 2012!

Kick Off Day!!!!

eoehrlein — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 22:43:32 +0000

Many eager Granite City Gearheads arrived at Apollo High School at 7 a.m today, Saturday, January 7, 2012. The Fun Van took the excited team members to Saint Cloud State University to find out what the new game will be for the 2012 FIRST competition. When we arrived at Stewart Hall all of the students were pumped up to see what our game will be this year. When the video finally started, our faces lit up with awe. As soon as the presentation was over, we picked up our kit and were on or way back to school. Once we were back at school, we opened the kit and took inventory of our parts and then proceeded to brainstorm ideas about robot designs. Also, the team read through the rules and began proto-typing. Let us wish the Granite City Gearheads good luck this season!

Welcome Back Gearheads!

B. Vogel — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 04:06:11 +0000

Welcome to Build season 2012!

ARE YOU READY GRANITE CITY GEARHEADS? Only a few days left until the 2012 kick off! If you need any information about the kick-off be sure to contact Joy Birr(Our fearless leader) or Calvin Birr(2012 Captain).

If you can't make it to the kick-off FIRST usually posts the objective on their youtube which is here, along with a video of Morgan Freeman. This years Kick-off will be on Saturday, January 7th, 2012. There we will get our kit and be able to talk with other teams. Also this week, we will be meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Be ready to get your thinking cap on because the Granite City Gearheads will domminate! This year we will be leaving for the competition on March 28th. The competition is roughly 11-12 weeks away.

For those scouting this year, the 2011 FIRST Robotics Competition results are still up and can be viewed here. We placed 43 out of 63, but don't let that discourage you! Hard work pays off, and for those who haven't attended a competition yet, its a thrill of a lifetime, and no matter who you are, everyone has a complete blast!

Hope to see you at the Kick-off!

WE’RE BACK! (for now)

B. Vogel — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 23:07:08 +0000

While in the down season of Robotics we are now getting ready for the St. Cloud Parade (Saturday, June 25th) and the St. Joe Parade (June 4th) so make sure you watch out for us!.

Presenting for the Waite Park Chamber of Commerce

B. Vogel — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 21:50:56 +0000

Hello Gearheads and gearhead fans!

I know it has been a while since we have posted, but be assured we are working on that. First off, I want to send out a quick shout out to Calvin Birr and the St. Joseph Newsleader for running a piece about Calvin at the robotics competition, Emily Thiessen wrote the piece and she did an amazing job. If you would like to see it you could look at www.thenewsleaders.com and search for "St. Joe teen attends robotics competition"

Calvin, joined by Emily (Our captains) As well as Brooke, presented for the Waite Park Chamber of Commerce today. They only had ten minutes but I am told they blew their socks off and many people asked them for more information after the meeting!

On another note, we will be doing an open house! We don't really know what to expect from this, as it is something we haven't done before, however, we will be cleaning up the shop and the robot and putting them on display. It is open to anyone who would like to come and we look forward to seeing everyone who can make it there.

It is:

May 11th from 5-7 at Apollo High School in Mr. Weimer's room, Room 903, as well as the robotics lab which is just down the hall. If you are interested in coming you can enter from door 30, the south door!

Andrea