Archives: 2011 Offseason
Note: Any post not credited was written by the webmaster
1/6/12
Team Combustion.... Are you Ready to Start Your Engines ???? As we kick off the build season, I want to remind you all of the importance of a safe work environment. Please Think Safety FIRST ! Take the time to carefully read and understand the attached Safety Contract. Copies will be available for each and everyone to sign to acknowlege your understanding that safety is a key factor to a sucessful build season. If you have any questions, I will be happy to provide further clarification. Also, look for our new SAFETY EDUCATION ZONE where you will find valuable information in the FIRST Robotics Team Saftey Manual and our Team Combustion Safety powerpoint presentation. Looking forward to a SAFE and Successful build season. ~Nick P
1/6/12
we have again been asked to bring a robot to kickoff, we will be bringing t-rex of doom. she has the kinect working with her and seems like a good choice and an easy transport. i will still be getting the kit of parts, therefore the black knight cannot carry additional passengers to kickoff. students, It's the deep breath before the plunge. over the next weekend, please take the time to thank your mentors (exclude me) and your teacher sponsor, ms. tiffany. they will be giving up a ton of hours for you to have an amazing experience. they and you have worked hard to build an multi award winning team, that has the respect of the FIRST community both locally and nationally. hold your head up high (you've earned it), be a gracious professional, and show appreciation to those who work hard to make you a success. ~Mrs. Holladay
1/4/12
Hey guys, tis time for me to make le scrapbook so if anyone has any pictures or small mementos of our wonderful team to put in the book, I would be eternally (in a temporary manner) grateful if they would email me pics. Gracias ~Jen
1/3/12
I hope each and every one of you had a safe and enjoyable holiday season. It's time...kickoff of the upcoming robotics season is this Saturday! Here is the plan: the following students are scheduled to go to Stennis to attend the kickoff. Meet in the NHS parking lot at 7:15 am this Saturday. If you cannot go, please contact Hannah. The rest of the team should meet in Ms. Swalm's classroom at 8:30 am Saturday to watch the live telecast. At 1 pm, all of Team Combustion will meet at Qinetiq to begin brainstorming this year's game. Lunch will be provided. Plan on working until around 6 pm. We will meet at 1 pm again on Sunday at Qinetiq. Lunch will NOT be provided on Sunday. We will then continue on with our normal weekly build sessions. See you Saturday..... ~Mr. Eisman
12/21/11
We will have a small work day tomorrow at Qinetiq from 2pm to 4pm. For anyone who has work to do (perhaps unfinished from Saturday) please come by. I believe the computers are being updated to Window 7, the controls team has some testing to finish, there is one more table to assemble and that area to configure, etc. Holy cow only 17 days to kickoff.
12/18/11
the first chairman writing session will be tomorrow, monday 7 pm at the holladay house. they will be led by sam and aretha. they are both juniors and we would like to begin training younger students. we will also be looking into the the video that goes into the award. all are welcome. ~Mrs. Holladay
12/18/11
Hey team! So as a follow-up to Mr. Greg's email, great job again to the beta testing team to a wonderful presentation! The teams that came to our beta testing presentation were teams: 3946, 3991, 364, 2080, 1421, 456, 3337, and 2221 for a total of eight different teams. For freshman (and other members as well i suppose) try to think of where you want to be during the season, and don't worry too much about things. You'll learn as you go. Also, it appears that we're going to have an awesome season, and robotics will soon dominate our lives, if it already hasn't that is. Things are looking good, and remember about the dates in Mr. Greg's email: January 7th and 14th. ~Yuanxia
12/18/11
Thanks to everyone who turned out yesterday. A special thanks to the hard working group of beta testers not only for giving the presentation to several out-of-area teams, but also for the actual work on the software and hardware during the off-season. Thanks also to Nick for the safety brief. Great job on the safety animation as well...I hope we win! I believe we got a lot accomplished yesterday. The space looks good, and it looks like we have a great group of new mentors, new students and an enthusiastic bunch of returnees. Important dates to remember--Kickoff is January 7th. A small group of us will go to Stennis to watch, and the rest can go to Ms. Swalm's room to watch it on closed-circuit TV. We expect to work at Qinetiq immediately after the presentation and have lunch provided. Expect to be at the build site until 6 or 7 pm. More details to follow in future e-mails. Janaury 14th--Jump Start. Several teams will come together in our space to work towards assisting rookie teams get started. Lots more to come on this as well. I hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday season. Keep checking e-mails for details as we get closer to the build season. Go Team Combustion!!!! ~Mr. Eisman
12/14/11
Returning students and mentors, new students and mentors..... I hope all of you are ready to get this upcoming robotics season going! Kickoff is just a few short weeks away and we have a LOT to do. Please read this e-mail in its entirety as it contains a lot of important information. This Saturday, December 17th, we will be having a meeting for EVERYONE who is on this year's team. We need you at the Qinetiq building at 8:30 am Saturday morning. We will be hosting several rookie teams to do our beta demonstration that is required since we are a beta test team. This presentation will be important for all members to see. We will then answer any questions from the rookie teams and show them our work space. It is still in need of some cleaning and organizing, so that's going to be part of our job as well on Saturday. After the rookie teams leave, we'll get down to the business of planning our build season. If you are unable to attend, you are going to be WAY behind. We need to make sure that all students have been assigned duties (chassis, challenge, autocad, etc) so that each and every one of you plays a role on the team. We need to identify who is going to Stennis for kickoff. We need to work out details for Jump Start. We will be getting updates about budget, sponsors, etc. We have a new trailer (thanks to all who put their time and effort into that endeavor) that we need to prepare for competition. If we have time, a safety briefing and orientation of our work spaces for the new students will be held. The list goes on and on. Please, make it a priority to be at Qinetiq at 8:30 am this Saturday. If you need to be a little late, let someone on the team know. If you can't make it at all, let someone on the team know as well. For newer students, we have talked about the commitment to this team...and the commitment starts this Saturday. I am not sure how long we'll be there, so you may want to bring a lunch, snacks and a drink. Go Team Combustion !!! ~Mr. Eisman
12/14/11
Team, Team Combustion is now the proud owner of our very own trailer to transport our equipment. A spare tire mount is being added now and I will pick it up tomorrow. ~Dr. Bibee
12/11/11
Big week ending another beginning, Yesterday, Rachel, Sam, Hannah, Leah, Mr. Allen, Mr. DIck, and I volunteered as judges and field reset at the State FLL competition. Nick was there as Little Oak's Coach. Again, if you have never been to a FLL competition, you really should go see one. They are very different from FRC and the kids are so cute. The robots and projects they work on are really amazing. Having served as judges, I know we were stressed but had a lot of fun. Micah Sorrell was also there as a team member of one our new Jr.FLL teams. Honey Island and Cypress Cove each has two teams. They were great and so accomplished. They worked hard this season, and we are so proud of them. With our safety animation submitted, yeah!!, this Saturday we will switch to Beta Testing Presentation. This year, due to the Kinect, and the large number of rookies, we are expecting a bigger than usual attendance. All team members should attend and hopefully we can get some work/clean up done at QinetiQ. Sunday is paintball. Study hard and good luck on your exams. Kickoff is Saturday Jan 7. ~Mrs. Holladay
12/7/11
I have upgraded "System F" from the lab to Windows 7, 32 bit. I installed Autocad and it is running fine using a new graphics card which supports dual monitors. Let me know when someone will be at the building so that I can bring it back and get it set up. ~Mr. Baham
12/7/11
Just received confirmation from Paintball Command in Mandeville that they can accommodate us on Sunday, December 18 at 11am. The price is $29 which will include equipment, co2 refill, field fees and 500 paint balls each. The team will get two games of exclusive play and additional games with everyone else. If you have your own equipment, the price is $25.00. Paintball Commands policy states that EVERYONE attending will be required to complete a WAIVER signed by a PARENT. The form is attached to this email. You must bring this completed form with you. Please confirm to me personally with your intention to attend. This way everyone is not receiving excessive emails. Our final count will be sent to Paintball Command on Tuesday December 13th. So let me hear from you soon. Details will follow regarding payment of fees as we may need to make one payment for the entire team. Please check out their website at www.paintballcommand.com for directions and additional information. ~Nick P
12/2/11
Hey Team, Last night Nick, Hannah, Leah, Patrick, Mr. Allen, Ms. Shahnaz, and I attended the Slidell Women's Civic Club meeting to present their sponsorship plaque and gift them the gifts we collected. They are definitely some of the sweetest and appreciative ladies we've gotten to work with; they were absolutely thrilled with our plaque and passed it around in awe (so cute) Along with that, they were thrilled at our donation of Christmas gifts so lots of thanks to everyone (even people who don't celebrate XMAS :-} ) that donated XMAS gifts (I'm not sure of everybody's name who participated but you know who you are) Our team once again impressed the Civic Club Keep up the great work! ~Raya
11/30/11
Team, I appreciate the members who have participated in the Christmas project, to help Slidell Women Civic Club's effort to help the needy families of our community with. Mr.Allan, Mr. Collins and Mr. Islam(Raya's Dad) collected a lot of toileteries over the summer and donated it to SWCC. On behalf of the club I thank each one of you for your generous donations. It means a lot. ~Mrs. Shahnez
11/26/11
Hey guys, The reservations for paintball have been set for December 11th at 1:00 at LA Extreme. The cost is $30/person if we have at least 12. The cost goes up if we have less. If you have your own equipment, the price is $25. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU RSVP BY DEC. 5TH, SO ASK YOUR PARENTS AND RESPOND. WE HAVE TO GIVE THEM A DEFINITE HEAD COUNT OR THE RESERVATION WILL BE CANCELLED. ALSO, IF MORE PEOPLE SHOW UP THAN RSVP, THEY COULD TURN US AWAY BECAUSE OF OVERCROWDING. A lot of you have said you want to do this, but when you RSVP please make sure that you have discussed it with your parents. You don't have to pay until the day of the event, but we need a firm headcount. Ok, that's it. I guess I've the RSVP thing enough. :) ~Hannah
11/25/11
Hello, this is just a reminder to people who picked up Christmas envelopes to buy your gifts soon because the deadline will be here before you know it! Happy Thanksgiving everyone! ~Raya
11/24/11
Hi and Happy Thanksgiving! This email is mostly for the benefit of our new members. We are planning a paintball party soon, either the first or second Sunday of December at LA Xtreme. If we have at least 12 people, we will get a group rate of $30/person which includes 500 balls and equipment rental. If you're interested please reply and let me know which Sunday will be better for you. Kickoff for the new season is January 7th, but we are hoping to get in some pre-build safety and introductory build sessions before this. More information will follow when we know what we plan to do and when. FYI, combustion@team1912.com is the email list that everyone uses most. It goes to all members, including mentors, so if you need to communicate something robotics related, this would be the email address to use. ~Hannah
11/23/11
I hope all of you have a Happy Thanksgiving. I am FINALLY back from two months of travel and I am back ready for an exciting season of robotics. Expect a couple of opportunities to get together between now and the build season in preparation for six weeks of intense but rewarding build time. Keep checking your e-mails.....only 45 days until kickoff! ~Mr. Eisman
11/19/11
We really need some team leads to start showing some interest in this. Patrick has talked about building BURNie which would be a great thing to take to parades. The design is done and he should be fairly simple to build so let's do it! Also, tomorrow at 1pm I will be having some of the animation team (and Rachel for moral support) over to my house to work on the safety animation. Anyone who wants to help, learn, watch, or whatever is welcome. I've been looking into group rates to do a paintball party as a way to welcome the new members and try and stir up some enthusiasm for build season. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN DOING THIS PLEASE RESPOND AND LET ME KNOW. IF THERE ISN'T ENOUGH INTEREST WE WON'T DO IT. So let's get going guys! We've had a bit of a slow start as far as participation in off season activities. We've done a lot, but with only a handful of members showing up. Let's turn that around and get excited! If not now, when....? Thanks ~Hannah
11/19/11
Hi team: A number of people have expressed interest in doing some preseason chassis or challenge team building, like the building we did in December 2009, before we built Stryker. I think it's a great idea and it can give us a welcome opportunity to train new members in a more casual environment, gain experience with Inventor and the power tools, test out new chassis and challenge ideas (omni-drive, arms, grippers for instance?), and get back in the "building mood." In 2009 we just built a chassis from the kit at Ken Hoppens' house, and although it was simple, I think it was quite helpful. We would obviously use PSI to do the building this year, although we would clearly have to adapt the schedule to meet PSI's demands. SPHERES is winding down, so I'm busy looking for something else to use up all of my free time. Any thoughts? Maybe some team leads and mentors could express interest, and we could work out a schedule for building (probably in December, even though we will also write Chairman's in December). Any members who want to build would be a welcome help. Thanks,~Sam
11/15/11
Hello everyone! It is that time of year again! Last year we participated in the SWCC's project which blessed children in our community with gifts for the holidays. This year the project has been expanded to include senior citizens. To refresh your memory, the way the project works is that a set of partners pick an envelope with a name. The envelope will include the wish list for that individual and also some money which you are to double. Then, you shop! This year we have 8 names to select from. It would be best if we could have all of our people spoken for before Thanksgiving break because the gifts are due back to SWCC by November 29th. I will have the envelopes ready to pick up after Wednesday of this week. Please email me if you have any questions or would like to reserve an envelope. ~Mrs. Swalm
11/15/11
Hey guys, I have been working on the safety animation at my house and its coming together nicely. However, I am having trouble completing it along with all my other work. I would really appreciate some help on this and even if you don't know animation you could still help out with voice overs or video editing. If you would like to work with me on it please contact me and we can set a date to work on this. The deadline is fast approaching though (due the first week of December) and we need to hurry. I am free most weekends and pretty much all of Thanksgiving break. Please reply ASAP. Thank You 3'peat, double banner ~Hannah
11/13/11
Hey team, This weekend Nicholas and I helped out our Lego League teams at the competition at Fountainbleau High School. My team, Bonne Ecole did extremely well. They were ceded 17th in robot, but thanks to their fabulous presentation (which plays a major role in FLL) they were able to be one of the 15 or 16 teams that advances on to State. I really encourage yall to look into mentoring a team from start to finish next year because I really can't explain the feeling of seeing your little FLL kids succeeding after contributing so many of their after school hours and displaying so much commitment at such a young age. Yeah, I know, it's cheesy. On another note, Boyet placed first place, like they always do, and Nick, please let us know how your team did. Also, I met up with Mr. Hobson who is doing INCREDIBLE at Slidell High. Their robot team is by far the best rookie team I've ever seen with their air cannon t-shirt machine and blimp. Yes, they are in fact building a BLIMP to show at public events. I intend on visiting their team sometimes if anyone is interested in going with me. This is wildfire never stops growing (a good thing in our case) keep up the igniting. ~Raya
11/12/11
Today, a grand total of 3 people showed up for the Slidell cleanup(Mrs. Wendy, Rachel and I) to trim bushes in Old Town. While there was a lack of volunteers, there also happened to be a lack of work to go around. After cutting weeds out of bushes, we proceeded to trim some of them, then went home about 10:30, only an hour and a half after we arrived. Still, we got some great pictures, and are eagerly waiting to help next time. (Probably to fix the bushes we trimmed) ~Nicholas H
11/9/11
Team: So on Sunday we marched in the Veteran's Day Parade through Slidell, down part of Gause, Front Street, and ____. We decorated Dolemite (the name for the Holladay twins' green truck) to be super-Americano and drove it in the parade, with Stryker and Blue Steel in the bed. A big thanks to Hannah, Rachel, Patrick, Josh Pender, Mr. Allen, my mom, and Micah (who's come to more offseason events than many students) . While the turnout was relatively low because the Saints game was on, I still think we made a good impression, and was a good step towards double banners. ~Sam
11/11/11
Hey Team! Sorry this is delayed, but Saturday afternoon, Combustion made a loud appearance at Lakeview Medical Center's Boo Fest that raises money for families with disabled children. How the event works is that businesses and families buy mini "houses" which are set up along a long sidewalk winding around the gorgeous pond and children in adorable costumes come trick-or-treat to all the various "houses" and tents. 1912, in fact, had their own tent and small space to show off our robot and our banner could be seen from miles away. While we passed out candy, we also let little kids drive around Stryker. Many children, and especially parents, were fascinated by our club and some even mentioned watching the FIRST special on ABC with Will.I.Am. The event was a success (and our tummies full with frozen yogurt) with the help of Sam, Rachel, and Ms. Wendy helping us set up before their swim meet and Madeline and Shelby (who are now master drivers of Stryker), Zach, Ms. Shahnaz, and myself. We had a blast at this demo and I hope to see more team members at the next one. P.S. Remind new members about the meeting tomorrow! keeping up the igniting, Fiya ~Raya
11/11/11
Team, Our upcoming Events and Projects:
Sunday Nov 6: Veteran Day parade. We are in desperate need of volunteers. Remember,to be in good standing
in the team you need off season hours too. So help in anyway you can. The truck for the parade will be
decorated at the Holladay's on Friday after 5:30p.m(check time with them). Raya will have the decorations
with her. Please be there to help so that it can be done faster.
Soles for Souls: Collect gently used shoes from family, friends and neighbors for the organisation. I want
to give all of our collection to Ms. Carol Wolform who is one of the organisers for this event and also she
is our reporter for Slidell Times Picayune. She always write good things about us. Please don't take it to
Slidell City cleanup event as we should have a team picture before we turn it in.
Christmas Gifts for children in need: Last year team has helped out Slidell Women Civic club by buying
chirstmas gifts for the really really needy children of our community. We pick a child's name and it will
have a wish list and some money in an envelope. You will have to kind of match that amount and buy things
from the wish list. So please let me know if you all are interested to participate in the same project
again. You all are excellent team players and I am very proud of you. ~Mrs. Islam
11/11/111
Please again thank Aretha for all her hard work that is rarely seen. She submitted the Lockheed and Grumman grants last Saturday night. So if you like $$, thank Aretha ~Mrs. Holladay
10/28/11
Sincere effort was put forth by our team members to load Stryker and Blue Steel on to Rachel's truck. Team Combustion is ready to roll this weekend with Boo Fest Demo. Jeffrey, Juan, Amalin, Rachel and Raya, we appreciate your help and leadership. Thanks. If someone didn't sign up and still wants to go, you are welcome to do so, just let us know. ~Mrs. Islam
10/26/11
Team: I appreciate each one of you for signing up to help out in this event, which is for a great cause. The organizers of this events has shown great enthusiasm and expressed their gratitude towards our decision. You all are awesome and I am very proud to be a mentor of this great team. Right now the plan is to leave my house by 8:15 a.m, inorder to set up our station and get our assingments from the organizers. I can bring 6 students in my van to and from the event. If stryker needs a ride home, I can bring him back along with 3 students. So far, I have Shasha, Aretha, Madelyn, Shelby, Raya, Zack, Sam and Rachel. Please let me know if I have missed anybody. Try to be at my house by 8:00, on Saturday OCt 29. We will load Ms. Wendy's truck on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. at PSI. Stryker along with other bells and whistles, need to board the truck. We also need to print brochure and buisness cards, bag some candies to hand out to the treak or treating kids. Although it's a very late notice, show up at psi if you can. Please extend your helping hand, show your gracious professionalism and make this a successful event. ~Mrs. Islam
10/24/11
Hi all! We will be having the New Member Meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 2nd at 7pm in the library. This will be the first meeting for our freshmen and any other new members that signed up on club day. It is very important that we have all of our officers there and as many mentors as possible to talk to new members and parents. We will be discussing a lot of upcoming events, so we encourage you to make every effort to attend. NEW MEMBERS: Please bring at least one parent with you to this meeting. All parents are welcome, but it is very important that the new members have at least one parent/guardian in attendance. CLUB DUES WILL BE COLLECTED AT THIS MEETING. The dues is $25 for the year. Please don't forget :) Hope to see you all there. Can't wait to get started on our 3-peat, double banner season!! ~Hannah
10/24/11
We are marching in Slidell's 4th Annual Veterans Day Parade on Nov. 6th, 2011 (flyer attached). It will start at Slidell High School at Noon and end at Salmen High School. We are going to decorate one of the Holladay's pick-ups and build a platform in the back of it so that we can show off one of our robots. We also want to bring Stryker along so that we can drive it along the parade route (specifically, we want to drive it in front of the reviewing stands so that they can see an operational robot). ~Mr. Sorrell
10/24/11
for those of you worried about $$, aretha has been hard at work for the team. she submitted our proposal to have Jacobs purchase a team trailer. she submitted the newly required NASA grant proposal. this week she will get the Lockheed and Grumman grants in. please be sure to thank her for her hard work that many times seems to go unnoticed but not unappreciated. without funding, we die. ~Mrs. Holladay
10/12/11
All, Today I was approached by Coach Beason, who makes a lot of tshirts for the school. He said he was making shirts for many of the clubs right now and he was looking for teams that he knew win a lot. So he thought of the robotics team. He has offered to make us free Back-to-Back Chairmans Winner shirts. It will be simple, probably a navy shirt with a graphic of the trophy and something about 1912, FIRST, Bayou Regional etc. For anyone who wants a shirt, please send me personally (either thru email or text but please dont email the whole team) your tshirt size. I think we should all feel awesome because someone has offered us free stuff only cause we win a lot. Coolest kids on the block.
10/6/11
WE ARE DOING BETA TESTING HARDWARE! We should be getting a XBox Connect and possibly the new cRIO. So we are doing LabVIEW with new components. PS im excited.
9/21/11
Hey everyone, As some of you know, I volunteer for Bonne Ecole's FLL team. I need some more help, maybe 1 or 2 more students. So if you are interested let me know please. Their meetings are usually right after school from 3 to around 5. I'll give you more details to who ever shows interest. Thanks Your fellow Igniter, ~Raya
9/13/11
Hey everyone, Yesterday the Honey Island Jr. FLL Teams had their kickoff meeting. They are very excited about getting started in the competition and they are so cute! If anyone would like to volunteer their time to help one of the Honey Island teams or one of the Cypress Cove teams, please contact me, my dad, or Mrs. Wendy to get the meeting times. We are doing a great job of spreading the wildfire this year with the new Ignition Team! As Rachel would say Three-peat, Double banner! ~Hannah
9/7/11
Today, we (Leah, Hannah, Nicholas H., Nick P., Aretha, ShaSha, and Mrs. Wendy) went to Textron to thank them for their wonderful support. We were a little delayed as the Textron man was in a teleconference at the time we were supposed to meet. However, all went well. We sat in his office and discussed our accomplishments this year, the setting up of FLL teams and of Slidell's rookie team that begins this year, our outreach and volunteer work we do, and of course, Hannah presented them with the plaque and we took a wonderful picture and called it a day. On a side note, he complimented us on what we were doing and said it was an "amazing thing" and that it would shape what we do later in life. Thought I should mention that. ~Yuanxia
8/30/11
Hey guys, In order for this bake sale to be successful on Friday, we need everyone to pitch in and bring something. We are planning on doing this at both lunches, so please participate and bring in your bake sale items Friday morning to Ms. Swalm's classroom. We also will need a few people at each lunch to help out with the sale. Please respond to this email if you are planning to help out so that we know what to expect. (Both for bringing items and helping at lunch.) Thanks, ~Hannah
8/29/11
Ok we are scheduled from 4-4:30 Wednesday Sept. 7th to present Textron the thank you plaque and have our pic taken. I NEED NAMES for security purposes. I only heard from 5 students and two have after school sports activities and can't go. If you can attend send me your name SOON!!! ~Mrs. Holladay
8/27/11
Hello everyone! I hope everyone is having a great start to the school year! I know it has been a very busy few weeks! I have a few bits of information to pass along to everyone: First, students please bring your club participation forms to me in room 111. I need to have them submitted by the end of this month. (If you need a copy, come see me). Second, Robotics has ice cream sales from Nov. 14 - Dec. 2nd. It is an opportunity for us to make a few hundred dollars but we will need some parent volunteers to sell ice cream at lunch. Please let me know if you know of anyone interested in helping out. And finally, we have received approval to host a fundraiser for the family of Jamie Barry (a former NHS student killed in the motorcycle accident last weekend). We are planning on putting together a bake sale for next Friday, Sept. 2nd. I will have more information for everyone on Monday. I just wanted to let everyone know as early as possible. If you have any questions, please email me. Have a great weekend! :) ~Mrs. Swalm
8/22/11
At little early but we will be demoing the robot on the Verizon stage at the crawfish cookoff april 21. The event organizers we so happy with us they are giving us a pizza party. I currently have it scheduled for sat. jan. 7th, in the afternoon. That is kickoff and so now we have lunch. ~Mrs. Holladay
8/13/11
Hey everyone wear your Combustion shirts on Tuesday to support the team for Club Day!! Also, I need everyone who can, to please come to the robotics table during your lunch to help get people excited about TEAM COMBUSTION! We need to recruit those freshmen! Leah's already recruited a few of her classmates, so let's sign em up! Thanks and see you at the table! ~Hannah
8/6/11
Wow! It was a long day! Very very long! Thanks to all who came to help support our awesome sponsor celebrate their big day. We received several compliments about our team from managers and employees. One of the managers even talked to my dad about coming back for the day after Thanksgiving sale......oh boy! Well anyway, it's great to help out and show our appreciation whenever we can. Stryker, the Energizer Bunny, performed great as usual. Only one small repair needed. My dad figured out what the problem was and Zach fixed him with some Duct tape. Whatever works! My dad found someone interested in helping with the Honey Island team. Many parents really interested in FIRST robotics in general. We did a great job sparking interest today. Thanks again, and enjoy your last 36 hours of Summer Vacation! ~Hannah
7/26/11
Well that seemed like three different demos put into one day! We (Petras, Shelby, Madeline, Sabrina, Aretha, Sam, Mum, and myself) had a very long day at Stennis doing a whirlwind of activities. Although we were not an active participant of NASA Take Your Kid to Work Day, we helped NRL with their Seaperch booth and listened (spying!) on Team 1421 Chaos at they gave their demonstration. As kind of a fun activity members of all three House Teams, Fusion, Chaos, and Combustion, were all on site and went on a tour of the B test stand. We gave another great presentation to the management of PWR and NRL/NDEP to thank them for their tremendous sponsorship. A special thanks to our PWR mentor Mr. Davis and Mr. Alex. It was kind of fun to meet up with all the Combustion NRL kids and their bosses. In a stunt very similar to what we did with Team 2992 at the Tulane Engineering Conference, we did the PWR's Take your Kid to Work Day demo with the Fusion Team. It was pretty cool to have two robots going except for this weird part where the kids thought our robots were dating. Anyway, great to see our sponsors and our fellow FRC friends. Stryker is all ready to go with the Sorrells for the JCPenney demo coming up!
7/25/11
Just a reminder that ABC will be airing a special on the FIRST Robotics competition from St. Louis where the Black Eyed Peas performed. The special is on Sunday, August 14th. The FIRST web page has all the details. I have been impressed by all the hard work and publicity Team Combustion has shown this summer. Keep up the good work!! ~Mr. Eisman
7/22/11
Hey guys, we have demo this Tuesday at SSC for PWR and NASA, two of our biggest sponsors. We are going to meet at the Holladay House at 6:30am to ride to work with my mum. Once we get to Stennis we are going to set up Valkyrie in one of PWR's conference rooms. Then the morning is going to pretty open so possible exploring and touring. Around two pm ish we are going to do a demo for PWR's Take Your Kid to Work Day. After that we are doing our normal sponsorship presentation for PWR's management with a demonstration of the robot. In case you didnt know, the updated presentation is on the website (like everything else!) http://team1912.com/corporate.html. Sometime during the day we are going to give the NASA sponsor plaque to Katie Wallace. Its going to a bit of a long day seeing as we wont get back in till maybe 4ish. We are hoping to meet up with some of our Combustion NRL students. As a heads up, some familiar faces from Team Chaos will be on site to do NASA's Take Your Kid to Work Day. This is rotated through the House Teams, we did it two years ago. We will also have some friends from Fusion hanging out with us before doing their own presentation later in the day. So all three power(NASA)house teams on the site on one day! Currently the drivers will be mum and myself. I dont think we will need more but that will depend on how many people can come.
7/22/11
We met with two District representatives of the Boy Scouts last night and gave them our Ignition Team presentation. We not only discussed starting up FLL and FTC teams within the Boy Scouts, but also some interesting partnership opportunities. One was an idea for a FIRST Aid camp, and the other is a leadership and team building camp. Details need to be worked out, but exciting opportunities for the team. I would like to get as many of the officers together as possible on Sunday, August 7th for a meeting. We have a lot of work to do this year and we really need to get organized and make sure everyone knows what's going on. Thanks again to Rachel, Sam, Nick P., Mrs. Wendy, and my dad for a great presentation. ~Hannah
7/22/11
I (Nick P) just met with a St. Tammany Parish 4H agent who is really excited about working with us. She will soon meet with the state director, and they want to start a 4H robotics program for the state. She will contact me soon to coordinate a meeting. This is a great opportunity to spread the wildfire across the state. ~Nick P
7/22/11
JCPenney has invited us (Team 1912) to help them celebrate the store's 25th anniversary on August 6th. In addition to a contingent of students to demonstrate the robot(s?) in the mall during the celebration they have asked us to help them out in several other ways. They would like: Two students to cut (and presumably serve) the cake, Two students to serve popcorn, Two students for "The Cat in the Hat" (in particular they want a tall student to wear the costume), and other students to be greeters at the doors. I'm going to try to get them to let me put a team t-shirt on the cat. I need to put together a list of volunteers to participate in this event. Please let me know if you can participate (especially if you're willing to be the cat!). ~Mr. Allen
7/19/11
The Ignition Team is officially...ignited! We had our first presentation today with Honey Island and Cypress Cove and it went great! It looks like both schools are really excited about starting Jr. FLL teams this year. We will follow up with them and give them all of the support they need. Thanks to Sam, Rachel, Nick, Mrs. Wendy, and my dad for all of the hard work. It's been a busy summer and it's only going to get busier in the coming months. Enjoy the last 3 weeks of summer! ~Hannah
7/19/11
special thanks to austin and hannah and soon rachel too. all three will complete training for the team this summer. but i felt a special thanks goes to austin. he is a graduated team member, barely off the team but still working hard and giving up his free time to help other team members. thank you austin and enjoy your new life. ~Mrs. Holladay
7/16/11
yesterday three fusion team members came to the holladay house. we got the jaguars configured and working on t-rex. i'm thinking pmws may not be supported for much longer, so we are ready. they also helped us get valkeryie back, the crio from t-rex is in valkeryie, we will not see that crio until after august. thank you fusion for all your help and you are fun to work with. this week we have two ignition meetings, one with honey island and one with the boy scouts. this monday is austin's last inventor class. tuesday the computers will be moved back to psi. this wednesday is rachel's one day, web seminar, 6:30 holladay house. tuesday july 26th is bring your kid to work at ssc, we will be visiting our friends at pwr. as always whoever wants to attend, let us know. we will also be visiting nasa with their plaque. i am counting on our nrl group to help with pwr and nasa. dale let me know if you are going to work anything with nrl that i need to be aware of. bill or alex, please get with me on logistics. i am hoping to only bring valkeryie and not also have to bring stryker as a back up. saturday august 6 is our demo at northshore mall for jcpenneys. mr. allen is coordinating this and bringing stryker. i would like to return valkeryie to psi tuesday july 26th as we leave town the next day. greg collins i may need help getting in if it is after 5pm. the website has been redesigned and most but not all content is up. take a look, a lot of work went into the redesign. ~Mrs. Holladay
7/15/11
i know this is short notice but 2 fusion team members (one my student who proposed at the bayou) are coming today to the holladay house at about 1 to work on CAN configuration and programming. anyone who wants to come by can (haha) ~Mrs. Holladay
7/11/11
Hello Everyone! Please congratulate the following people on being recommended and selected for the
following Captainships and Offices. We are going to have a great year!
Chassis: Sam Holladay
Challenge: Patrick Sprung
Controls: Rachel Holladay
Animation: Sabrina Lannes
Safety: Nick Petras
CAD: Zach Collins
President: Hannah Sorrell
VP: Raya Islam
Treasurer: Aretha Guo
Secretary: Shasha Lee
Historian: Jenn Bateman
Strategist: Jeffrey Joyce ~Mrs. Swalm
7/8/22
So we (as in Nicholas Hallal, Leah, Jen, Sam, Micah, Mr. Allen and myself) just got back from a demo at Brock Elementary. They have a summer camp called "Summer of Science". Thank you to Jay for the contact. Fairly regular deal with pretty much all 90ish kids driving Stryker. That school has a very strong WiFi network (I am almost jealous) and we had to go tethered. Unfortunately we had some very very minor communication problems that climaxed when a kid pulled the yellow tether a bit hard. The plastic clip that hold the connector in, er, snapped. We tried to fix it by forcing it to hold with duct tape but had to switch over to our slightly shorter gray tether. Luckily this whole incident didnt last more that three or so minutes so the kids didn't really notice. Our ridiculously long yellow tether has been slowly dying (as evidence by the random patches of bright red electrical tape) and it might be time to replace him. On more positive note, Mr. Allen talked to a person from Brock Elementary and Abney Elementary, both of which are interested in having FLL teams. This Sunday at the Holladay House at a time to be decided (probably afternoon) we are going to have our first official Ignition/General Outreach meeting. If you don't know what I am talking about go read http://team1912.com/outreach.html right now. We have started to lay the ground for a 3peat and if you are interested in doing anything please come to the meeting. Every one who has been working this summer has been helping developing these initiatives. (In particular Mr. Allen and Mrs. Wendy who have taken off so much work for robotics you would think that robotics is their only job). I would really encourage everyone to try to make it to this meeting, this kind of stuff has been our ticket to Championship two years running..and I'd like to go back.
7/8/11
students who worked the cypress cove summer camp: NHS bookkeeper is not really working this summer and getting reimbursements from NHS is difficult until school reopens. i have not forgot about you. but if i pay you now, it is out of my own pocket. while i think a lot of all of you, i am not willing to lend the team 900.00 at this time. you will be paid when school reopens. ~Mrs. Holladay
7/5/11
inventor classes begin this wednesday 6:30-8 at the holladay house ~Mrs. Holladay
7/5/11
this friday we are due to demo stryker at the Century 21 camp at brock elementary at 1:30. this may be our last of the summer with the exception of the bring your child to work day at pwr at ssc july 26th. mr. allen will again be taking this one, meet at the holladay house at 12:30. please let he or me know if you can attend and he will probably need another adult driver. ~Mrs. Holladay
7/5/11
it was very hot, but doing a great job were mr. allen, ms. yoko, twinage, 3 sorrells, logan, josh pender, nick hallal, sabrina, jeffrey and me. we meet a lot friends and made some new ones. channel 4 would like to come to a build session and do a story about us. we met our mayor and will hopefully he will attend the bayou this year. we met the veterans and will march in their veterans day parade. on the down side valkeryie failed, sat on the sidelines with a ring in its claw looking pretty and stryker did the real work. we will begin looking at valkeryie wednesday. ~Mrs. Holladay
7/1/11
team, we have a few tickets to the heritage festival. after they are used, please pay to get in and give me the receipt. the team will reimburse you. last year too many got in for free, remember we are still invited guests and we want to continue to be invited. we are required to be set up by about 2:45. i realize this is early but these are the rules. we will move valykerie at 2 from my house. someone, please come help the holladay family. you can stay the rest of the day or come and go as you please. wear your team shirt ~Mrs. Holladay
6/29/11
Hey everyone, Tonight was the final animation class. Thanks to all who attended and I hope you enjoyed it. We covered some basic modeling, animation, and rendering techniques in the beginning. We ended the class with a bang....of the nuclear kind. Everyone learned how to model and animate a nuclear mushroom cloud. Inventor classes will begin next Wednesday evening at the Holladay house and later in the summer, Rachel will be giving a class on website design. Lots of opportunities for getting in touch with your inner computer-geek! Hope to see ya'll there, ~Hannah
6/27/11
We have been invited to do a robotics demonstration at a summer camp at First Baptist Church in Slidell this Wednesday at 1:00 PM. Wendy has a scheduling conflict so I am going to be taking this one. I will have to take Stryker (my vehicle will not hold Valkyrie) and I can only take one student in my car with me. Mr. Graham has volunteered to drive as well and can carry some other students. We will be meeting at the Holladay's house at 12:00 to load Stryker and the peripherals. I need to know who can go with us by this time tomorrow night. Right now I have Rachel, Sam, and Leah as volunteers to go. ~Mr. Sorrell
6/24/11
This past Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; ShaSha, Scott and I (Nick) attended the Zoom into Inventing camp at Southeastern. We were taught by Dr. Michael Beauvais Ed.D. about the Autodesk Inventor program. The first day the whole class (10 people total) created a fixture. The second day we made a steering wheel and we were also able to play around with it and make it our own unique creation. The third day was spent creating our own completely individual projects, Scott made two green lantern rings, ShaSha created a piano to be put on a key chain, and I made a model Eiffel Tower. The professor was going to create these on a 3D printer, but the printer was broken. Once it is repaired,he will send us a 3D model of our design. Then the fourth day we created a frame, learned how to weld in Inventor, and also how to bolt objects together. The professor did tell us if we ever had trouble creating anything in Autodesk, to give him a call or email and he would try to help in any way possible. He also said that if we ever need a complex plastic part, he would use one of his 3D printers to create it. ShaSha and I were also interviewed by the local college broadcasting station promoting the Zoom camps, however, we were unable to mention Team 1912. ~Nick
6/23/11
Hey guys, We have a new media position this year. Anyone who might be interested in photography and video production please respond to this email. This isn't a captaincy position, but it could become one in the future. We acquired a new software package for producing all of our videos this season--Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premier. We put out a lot of videos each season, so there will be plenty of work to do with this. Not only YouTube videos and chairman's, but also the non-animation work on the safety and excellence in design videos and the pit video as well. It's a lot of work, so if you think you're up to it, let us know. Thanks,~Hannah
6/21/11
Super great capital visit, great team participation and great contacts made. In attendance were, twinage, all 3 sorrells (trips), raya, aretha, michael, patrick, nick h., jen, Shelby, ms. Tiff, shanaz, allen, and me. did I forget anyone?? We met our good friend Kevin Pearson as well as numerous other lawmakers. We also made contact with several members of the board of higher education (ken's bosses, they voted to move uno to the ul system yesterday), as well as dignitaries from the republic of Georgia and Paraguay, and other assorted lobbyists. Jen may have gotten us a new sponsor, but they are a beer maker and didn't think sponsor a high school activity would work, maybe a silent sponsor. We collected a lot of business cards and ran out of ours and almost out of our new redesigned brochures. As a surprise activity, I saw one of the local TV stations (ch. 33) interviewing lawmakers and asked him to film us. Turns out he went to woodland high (3337) and he filmed the kids and interviewed Jen and Aretha. We need to work on TV coverage. And the other group set up in the Rotunda was some massage group, giving out free massage to lawmakers, Ms. Tiff and I talked our way into a free chair massage. The first one I've ever had. We went up to the governor's office and left our info. Still no luck getting in there. This demo was great and shows that you never know what you will learn or who you will meet. Many of our demos have led to other and bigger team opportunities. Keep checking the calendar for upcoming events, although I think the big ones for the summer are just about done. We do have to plan a thank you lunch or something for Qinteq, please be thinking about a date. ~Mrs. Holladay
6/17/11
Dare I say it? The camp was a huge success! It was definitely a long week full of work and (a little...) stress. We had a fantastic group of counselors who I believe the kids loved and looked up to. We co- hosted it with Cypress Cove and it worked out quite well. For the majority of the camp we worked as helpers, assisting with the classes and activities. As previously said, Thursday was 1912 day with robotics and rocketry. Our seven stations were very well received - fantastic job all around. We had a little hiccup with Valkyrie, but Mum and Sam solved it just in time. I must also give a shout out to three members of the Boyet FLL team who worked along side us the whole week. I think we generated a lot of excitement which will hopefully transfer into more Jr. FLL and FLL teams in our area. Alyssa did an awesome job (as usual) with media. There is this short video right after we fired the Estes rockets where the majority of the 130 campers are all standing together and yell out "GO FIRST". They look so cute, and so pumped about robotics! Hopefully next summer we will be able to have the science camp for the younger grades and a new separate Robotics/Rocketry camp for older grades. Alyssa Lessing, Aretha Guo, Ben Rowely (FLL), Joey Hobson, Leah Sorrell, Logan Keen, Nicholas Hallal, Nick Petras, Rachel Holladay, Sam Holladay, Sam Rowely (FLL), Yuanxia Lee, and Mitchel Metzger (FLL), And Josh Pender. Mum and I have also been contacted by two more summer camps who want us to visit them in July. Thanks to Jay for the contact into one of them. But more information about those two later. Can't Stop, Won't Stop - literally, cause the visit to the Capital is Monday!
6/14/11
Better get this out soon, if I forget to mention someone who attended please jump in. Last Thursday, we went downtown New Orleans to the IEEE executive meeting. Attending were, Rachel, Sam, Aretha, Michael, Nick, and Jen. We brought one of our pocket folders and our thank you plaque. Aretha did a great job leading it off, the rest also did a great job with the 5-10 minutes we were given. Most all had been to the Bayou and we encouraged IEEEE to work on supplying more mentoring and funding to teams. Aretha spoke to them about continued funding. Their webmaster got with Rachel and will supply a link to our team on their website. When Aretha presented the pocket folder, we got a comment I have never gotten before, "these are high school students?". I was extremely proud of our team, what an amazing group of students. The next day Ms. Tiffany and I took Rachel, Sam, Nick, Aretha, Leah, Shelby, Michael, Patrick, and Valkeryie to Fit as a Firefighter Camp. A 30 minute demo went great, no minibot and no breakage. This was also the first time we got called and they asked us to demo. I'm tired but the kids are inspiring and pushing me forward. The participation this summer has been amazing and everywhere we go the students are superb. This week we have 12 at Cypress Cove Science Camp and are joined by 3 Boyet Lego Leaguers. Thursday is robotics/rocket day 9-3, if anyone who isn't participating wants to come visit. Monday is the Capital. Don't forget Animation classes Monday and Wednesday 6:30-8. Spreading the wildfire, Can't stop, won't stop!! 3 peat, double banners!! ~Mrs. Holladay
6/13/11
jay has gotten us in touch with the first baptist summer camp, thank you jay. we will be giving a demo wednesday 1pm june 29. we can take either stryker or valkerie. i am looking for two parents who can drive to this, if i don't attend we will take stryker. i am trying not to miss more work, so help would be greatly appreciated. also students who can attend, let me know. thanks ~Mrs. Holladay
6/8/11
Hey Guys, I think we are setting a record for ourselves since we had/are going to have three different demos this week. -Thursday (Tomorrow) we are going to New Orleans to thank IEEE for their sponsorship. We are leaving the Holladay House at 10:15 and please be on time. Also, respond to this email only if you can come so we have a general idea. This is purely a sponsorship visit, so no robot. -Friday we are demoing at the Fit as the Firefighter Camp. We attended last year and have graciously been invited back. We are doing a 40-minute-ish explanation and demonstration of Valkyrie. Meet at the Holladay House at noon. Please email back if you can come and whether you can drive. Since we are transporting the robot in the Black Knight, we want to make sure we have enough rides. The location is Camp Villere, but we will have the exact directions and building number. Can't Stop, Won't Stop
6/7/11
I want to thank everyone who participated in the MAF event yesterday. The event was somewhat haphazard due to the overwhelming participant response. Last year we had 100 kids participate and the organizers were expecting a "modest" increase in participation for this year - they were expecting about 150. They got 350 (not including the parents/sponsors of the children). The robotics team took everything in stride with their usual aplomb and I was proud of the way they handled everything. Unfortunately (due to the circumstances) we did not get to do the tour like everyone else, therefore the event organizers have invited the team back for an exclusive tour of the facility and a "meet and greet" with some of our sponsors here at MAF at some future date. We did get to deliver our sponsor appreciation plaques to four of our sponsors (Jacobs, Sierra Lobo, Qualis, and Lockheed). We did have some issues, including several breakdowns of the robot and an assortment of bumps. Where possible the robot was repaired on the spot and the demonstrations continued. Most of the bumps occurred during the demonstrations of the robot. Since we were unable to bring a scoring pole to demonstrate the arm's ability to manipulate and place the tubes the team members came up with an interesting way of showing off – they were placing the tubes on each other's heads. This was very successful from the point of view of the crowds, they loved it - in particular the younger kids - however we did have some bumps along the way. Two of the victims that I know of were Leah, who was bumped by the robot's claw twice, and Ben (Tiffany's son, he was there as a event participant), who was bumped by the robot's claw once. None of these bumps resulted in any significant injuries that we were able to ascertain, however we may want to prohibit or restrict this form of demonstration in the future. This leaves us with the problem of figuring out a crowd-pleasing way to demonstrate the robot without using human props in the future. Wendy was another other bump that I know of, she bumped her leg while returning a bicycle parking rack back into its normal location as we were breaking down and packing up. Overall I think it was a very successful event and we have already received several verbal expressions of appreciation for our participation from the event's organizers. Again, a big Thank You to those of you who participated! Regards, ~Mr. Sorrell
6/5/11
To those attending, The classes will be starting Wednesday night (June 8th) from 6:30-8:30 at the Holladay's. If you have 3ds Max on a laptop and can bring it with you, that would be great! Thanks, ~Hannah
6/5/11
i need students, i will pick up and drive you this thursday from about 10-1 to go downtown new orleans to thank IEEE for their team sponsorship. this should be quick. please let me know who can attend. thanks ~Mrs. Holladay
6/3/11
Hey Combustion, on Wednesday we attended a training session at Stennis where they introduced us to NASA's "Summer of Innovation". As part of the program they are encouraging people to host camps to get kids interested in STEM. We secured some bonus funds and are participating by helping Cypress Cove's Science Camp. We did a number of cool activities, and, having completed them ourselves, will be able instruct the kids as they do them. Those in attendance were: Shelby, Shasha, Alyssa, Leah, Hannah, Aretha, myself, Sam, Logan, Josh (Pender), Joey (Hobson), Nick (Petras), and Nicholas (Hallal). We thirteen students will act as camp counselors/helpers at the camp, which is the week after next. We have put the materials on order and part of what we will be doing is assembling the more complex things on Monday morning. (Hint, hint, counselors make sure you are there on time Monday) The whole week we will be helping and working but Thursday is basically 1912 day. Yesterday Sam, Mum and I met with the teachers, who are really excited about our involvement. On Thursday we are doing a 7-activity rotation of: Bristle bots, the cup gripper, a Valkyrie demo, a FLL showcase by our Boyet team, straw rockets (something one of the teachers came up with), decorating/building stomp rockets (depending on the grade level) and launch session where we show the water and estes rockets that we built. In proving that one good thing leads to many others, we have been talking to the teachers about starting Jr FLL teams and they are thinking about next summer having the Science Camp for little kids and then a Robotics/Rocket Camp for older kids, the latter of which would be much more our own. But we will see how everything works out. I'm going to go ahead and summarize this summer with our 2006 motto of "Can't Stop, Won't Stop."
5/30/11
camp training is this wednesday, june 1. at 8:30 and goes till 2. if you are attending, please let me know. i can go thru old emails, but i am having trouble getting to my work email this weekend and will need to badge you into stennis. 2 things, let me know again, i'm sorry if you are attending. also if you need a ride, please let me know and meet at the holladay house at 7:30. I don't want to leave you if you need a ride. please wear your team shirt. ~Mrs. Holladay
5/27/11
Austin has graciously agreed to give some Autodesk Inventor design classes this summer. I am trying to find out who would be interested in attending these classes so that we can do some planning. ~Mr. Sorrell
5/27/11
Hey all, Due to some scheduling conflicts I will be having the first animation class on Wednesday, June 8, from 7-9pm. I need to know who is interested in attending so that we can figure out where we will be having the classes. Following June 8, classes will be every Monday and Wednesday night for about 4 weeks. The first class will be learning the basics of 3ds Max and will follow with a concentration on modeling. Each class, I will go over some modeling techniques and the participants will be creating something of their choosing and working on it each night. By the end, hopefully you will have created something you can be proud of incorporating modeling, texturing, and even some special effects. It would be great if everyone could show off their creations on the last night. If time allows, I will also touch on some other Autodesk programs as well. So, any of you who would like to be on the animation team this upcoming year, or if you just want to learn something new, please let me know ASAP! :) Thanks, ~Hannah
5/27/11
Hey Guys, We have been invited back to the Fit as a Firefighter Camp that we went to last year. It going to be on Friday, June 10th from 1-1:40am as Camp Villere. We will demo the robot for about 80 campers according to the lady. Please email as to who can come. And, well, looking at the pictures from our summer events so far, most of them have the majority girls. Our team has more guys than girls but the pictures don't reflect that..just saying.
5/25/11
This Saturday is the swamp restoration. If you need a ride, let me know. We will leave my house at 7:15. ~Mrs. Holladay
5/24/11
Monday June 6th is the NASA sanctioned "Bring your kid to work" day for all NASA facilities. We have been invited to be one of the attractions at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. We need a group of volunteers to go to MAF to show off our robots for the kids. We also want to present our thank you plaques to three or four of our gracious sponsors (Jacobs, Sierra Lobo, Qualis, and maybe Lockheed Martin). We also want to make a presentation to a number of the other tenants on the facility in the hopes of attracting additional sponsorships (the candidates include Blade Dynamics, Boeing, the USDA, the Coast Guard, and a number of other smaller organizations with operations on the facility). As many of the team members that went last year can attest, the facility is a fun place to visit and you will be given the opportunity to see the only surviving fully intact space shuttle external tank (currently destined to be a museum piece) in the Vertical Assembly Building. If you can attend this event please RSVP to me at sorrell1110@charter.net with your name, age, and citizenship so that I can make the necessary arrangements. Thanks! ~Mr. Sorrell
5/22/11
two great and hot mornings at southeastern volunteering for special olympics. hannah, leah, shasha, aretha, and twinage got up very early and showed our team's real heart by volunteering for this extremely worthy cause. you' all are awesome. ~Mrs. Holladay
5/22/11
Huge thanks to Hannah, Leah, Nick, Twinage, and Mr. Allen. With 1.5 hours notice we were on the road to the School Board Big End of Year Awards Meeting in Covington to thank them for their continued sponsorship. We were able to address the board and present the thank you plaque. You can see us on Channel 13. These team members made us and Dr. Peterson proud. ~Mrs. Holladay
5/19/11
we are going to the school board tonight, we need to leave at 6 from my house. let me know if you can come. ~Mrs. Holladay
5/19/11
Congratulations to our newly elected officers for 2011-2012. They are as follows:
President: Hannah Sorrell
Vice President: Raya Islam
Secretary: (to be decided)
Treasurer: Aretha Guo
History: (to be decided)
Strategist: Jeffrey Joyce
Safety Captain: (to be decided)
Congratulations!!! :) ~Mrs. Swalm
5/19/11
the plan for special olympics is we have to be at slu for 7. i have been and its about an hour drive. so we will leave at 6 (gasp!!) so far i know the holladays, sorrells, and aretha. i can pick everyone up. if there are others who are registered PLEASE let me know. i know it is early but you will be done early and are serving an extremely worthy cause. ~Mrs. Holladay
5/17/11
Look at how beautiful our logo came out in our patch for our varsity letters! I am so impressed with what they did. We are ordering these along with an arm patch for being Chairman's Award winners. I will let everyone know when they come in. We are ordering them through the same company which provides our athletic letters. This company also sells letterman jackets (starting at around $80). If you would like to order your jacket through this company and have everything arrived already sewn on, please let me know and I will send you our representative's email address. Also, a few people still haven't stopped by to vote. Please do so tomorrow so I can get our election results out ASAP. Thanks and good luck on exams! :)~Mrs. Swalm
5/16/11
Hey Guys, so today we picked up the plaques that we annually give to our sponsors in appreciation. We have the one for NHS that we give to Dr. Peterson. Normally we get a group of students together to present it. I was thinking some of us could go during A Lunch to his office. We can meet up in the indoor commons at the beginning on lunch, give it to him, and then eat.
5/16/11
ok we are due at the michoud assembly facility, bring your kid to work at monday june 6. so we go to the capital june 20. stryker is resting comfortably at psi, valkeryie is upstairs at my house. huge thanks to scott, nick, jen, and twinage on the move and to ms. tiff for helping us out. ~Mrs. Holladay
5/16/11
ok i now understand the process but we were alittle late in getting a capital date. i will know better for next year. in any case we are due in the capital rotunda for Monday June 6 at 8:30. I realize many of you may be starting work that day. We already got another organization's cancellation, so we were lucky to get this time at all. I am hoping to get valkeryie in my van and so would need another driver. could be a student if their parent is ok with them driving to baton rouge. students, let me know you can attend or not and mentors/parents let me know if you can help with driving. students, understand this is a very important demo, try to attend. thanks ~Mrs. Holladay
5/15/11
great event saturday at city park. thank you allen for being the second mentor/driver. students who gave up most of their saturday, and got up early to do a great job representing the team were, aretha, jen, zach, nick, hannah, leah, rachel and sam. we made a lot of great contacts both with local troups and the regional boy scout office. they are ready to get into robotics. they also talked about an organization we can join, that could open opportunities for us. we need to our ignition team up and running to be ready for these groups wanting to form teams. we also met the event sponsor, exxon and talked to them about sponsorship. and it was a beautiful day. and thank you suzie for getting this event set up for the team ~Mrs. Holladay
5/11/10
Hello everybody! A couple of things: if you're interested in an office or captainship, please make sure you pick up the packet from my room (room 111). I haven't seen too many people yet so I am extending our timeline. You can pick up the packet by this Friday morning but I MUST have them back by Friday afternoon so that I can have everything ready for our vote on Monday. There is an important update needed for the packet- in the captainship section, the CAD section should be divided into two separate captainships: Autodesk and Animation. Remember, we are having our officer elections first. So, if you run for an office but do not get it, you may still be considered for a captainship. Please do not forget to stop by my room sometime between Monday and Wednesday to cast your vote. Please let me know if you have any questions. :) ~Mrs. Swalm
5/10/11
thanks to ms. suzie, we are going to the boy scout expo at city park this saturday. the boy scouts this year will be introducing a robotics merit badge, so we are hoping for a new long term partnership. i will be getting stryker and our travel materials tomorrow from psi. we are due at city park about 9:15, the expo ends at 2. i will need the controls laptop, whoever has it. students, please let me know if you can attend, rides will be provided unless we have more students and then i will ask for another parent to help. ~Mrs. Holladay
5/10/11
the end of the year pool party is this sunday 2-4 at the holladay house. bring a dish, spoof awards will be given out. if you DO NOT plan to attend, please tell rachel or hannah. ~Mrs. Holladay
5/9/11
Hello! Everyone interested in candidacy for a captainship or an office for next year, please come by and pick up an Officer Packet from my room (room 111). Please pick up your pack by Wednesday, May 11th and have the completed packet back to me by this Friday. I will put together the list of candidates and we will begin voting Monday. Please stop by room 111 at some point between Monday, May 16th through Wednesday, May 18th to cast your vote. If you have any questions, please email me directly at tiffany.swalm@stpsb.org Thanks :) ~Mrs. Swalm
5/6/11
kevin pearson our favorite legistator got back to me and will sponsor us for a capital visit, more details to come. for a minute i thought we were losing our charm, but glad to be wrong ~Mrs. Holladay
5/6/11
today is the last day to volunteer for the state special olympics at southeastern university, but if you fill out the form below and fax it or email it in by monday you are ok. i will be driving and can give rides. we will work the 7:30-1 shift. http://laso.org/Images/Interior/2011%20ssg%20volunteer%20form.pdf i realize this is not related to robotics, but you will never get a better feeling about volunteering until you go help at one of these events. it is a little of a life changing experience. and who knows, maybe one of you will develop a robotic application that makes someone's life easier. ~Mrs. Holladay
5/5/11
Remember unloading begins sharply at 6 pm tonight...... ~Mr. Eisman
5/5/11
Hello, Everyone! Working/watching around the pit area in the past 4 years with team 1912, St. Louis was one of the best in my memory. So I would like to make a special comment from my experience, from technical/competition point of view only. The control team worked great together. Billy was a great leader, taken care all hardware related issues and coordinated with others. I do not know how many times he had to walk between the trailer and the pits, but I knew he was tired and never complain. He also took good care of all computers, and he knew the exact location of each control related parts. His dedication was very important for the team. Three freshmen were outstanding - Nick, Scott and Michael. Scott did a great job taking care of battery - he was always ready and we'd never needed to find him (imagine so many exciting events were happening around, this was not easy for anyone to do). Nick was voluntarily stayed around the pits between each match, and he was a great helper. Michael was a great helper of Billy and Andy too, he was always around and helped so much. The competition/driver team worked so hard together with mentors and they taken care of our robot in every possible way. Officer Raya and Jay worked very hard in the pit area too. I can not list all others kids who helped with set up the pit and checked out if help needed during the competition. I can tell that we all enjoyed the exciting moment when our robot/design worked, no matter winning or losing. With passion, dedication and cooperation, you can do it! ~Mrs. Zhou
5/4/11
If I read government documents correctly, today we received a lot (in my opinion) $$ and guidelines to assist/work at the cypress cove science camp this summer. It will be held june 13-17 (9-3). I am looking for counselors from the team, especially on the days we give the lego workshops. There will be training for us, the dates are being selected. We will be getting help from the boyet lego league team. Sounds exciting, as usual, fun and work. ~Mrs. Holladay
5/3/11
We will unload the trailer this Thursday, May 5th at 6 pm. If we get the majority of the team, we should be out of there by 7 pm. See you then..... ~Mr. Eisman
5/2/11
This is the type of text I like getting during the school day. Rachel asked me to resend the volunteer signup info because team members where wanting to sign up. Here it is http://www.nwf.org/Volunteer/Find-Opportunities/Gulf-Coast-Surveillance/Sign-Up.aspx please sign up for Saturday may 28. If that date is full now, let me know ~Mrs. Holladay
5/1/11
We will NOT be unloading the trailer today. I will send out another e-mail with specifics, but it will be over the next few days. Get some rest! ~Mr. Eisman
