Team Name:Robotic Eagles

Team Number: 358

Team Name:Robotic Eagles

Team Sponsors: BAE Systems

Impact on Team Members

FIRST has had a huge impact in Hauppauge. Our team continues to grow in size and interest throughout our school. Many of students graduating from FIRST are pursuing STEM as a career. A large portion of the team consists of underclassmen, indicating more growth for years to come. Alumni are attending WPI, RPI, MIT and other great schools for a variety of studies all built upon a foundation from the team.

Role Model Characteristics

FRC team 358 is a family. There is no other club or team in our district like ours; it must be

the late nights and exciting competitions! We hope this too is contagious to other teams and organizations at any FIRST and non-FIRST event we attend. Our family is defined by shared values: gracious professionalism on a personal level, respect, friendliness, and the eagerness to lend a hand to our own team, others and our community.

Impact on Community

Our once modest robotics team has grown from a small club to one of the largest, most well-known and successful teams in the school district. This is a team that is represented at many event. From school board meetings to Homecoming and visits to Assisted Living, our team is involved with them all. Our showcasing at the middle school science fair has even caused their LEGO robotics club to nearly triple in size. We also invite the middle school to come to the SBPLI competition each year.

Innovative Methods to Spread FIRST

Our team is a common face to the district, but we strive to spread FIRST beyond the scope of our schools. We've been involved in many community events outside of our school such as demonstration our robot at an assisted living home and the annual SBPLI golf-outing fundraiser. We were able to raising over $150 for charity in one day by participating in the ALS Ice Bucket challenge and then nominating other Long island teams to do the same. Public awareness has generated support for both our team and the FIRST program by inspiring sponsors and students.

Strength of Partnership

FIRST has enabled our team to develop valuable entrepreneurial skills in dealing with sponsorship and finances. For the past few years we've received grants from our business with BAE Systems as well as generous funding from our Board of Education. Our parent booster club works with our student officers to oversee our own fundraising efforts and the interaction of our team with our sponsors, so that they are aware of our gratitude for their generous donations to us.

Communication Methods

Team 358 makes communication simple and effective. We can reach every member of our team

instantly with email and Twitter. Students, mentors, and parents subscribe to Twitter updates via SMS so that a tweet from our account will be sent to their cell phones instantly. Less urgent or longer messages are sent through email. We have a Facebook group to keep in touch with our alumni and to act as an open forum for discussion outside the workshop. Our website serves as a bulletin board and

calendar.

Starting FRC teams

Our team

Starting other teams

Many of our mentors and students are involved with FLL teams which our mentor is the main advisor for. we also get involved with our elementary schools to promote robotics and using the LEGO mindstorms kits.

Assisting others teams

Our team organised a Robotics conference at our High school open to all FRC teams. Throughout the day we held workshops on mechanical, electrical, and even the 2015 control system. We had 16 FRC teams and 70 people attend including rookie teams who said the conference was very beneficial to their team. We also have teams from all over the World asking us for advice from chairmen's to pneumatic help through email and our twitter.

Mentoring other teams

We made multiple visits to rookie teams demonstrating our past robots and talking to them about our experiences from being involved with FIRST. We helped prepare them for the upcoming season by combining our past years of experience as well as helping them design their robot with in their building capabilities.

Corporate/University sponsors

Main Essay 7777 characters right now 10,000 max

There are three steps to the FIRST experience: learn, practice, and educate. What is great about FIRST is that these steps are true no matter what part of the program one is referring to. Students walk in to the workshop with the expectation that they will learn how to use some power tools or CAD software. They actually experience learning on a whole new level. As Benjamin Franklin once said, "Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn." The mentoring system is responsible for this learning process. Our Mentoring process involves both mentors and students to teach the underclassmen. We have the student run workshops for the team; theses combine the knowledge of the mentors with the experiences and views of the students to help the students get a better understanding. The next step to truly solidify what the students learned is giving them hands on experience. This is accomplished by having them repair and test old robots to get a more in depth education and a chance to test what they have learned. This not only helps them understand what they have learned, it promotes teamwork to help each other solve the problem and work on adding new parts to recycle the robots. These workshops give members a hands on experience with our robots very early in the year. Students are given responsibility and deadlines and, with just the right amount of guidance, accomplish great feats. Students grow from young freshmen into capable and involved seniors, ready to change the world using everything they've learned - technical or not - from FIRST. While the learning process is a spectacle in and of itself, nothing is more beautiful about FIRST robotics than the common goal to inspire, assist, and have fun. FIRST is about sharing these with other students, other teams, and other non-FIRST people and organizations. Sharing the message of FIRST and the spirit of Gracious Professionalism involves ourselves, the FIRST community, and the world around us. During our schools homecoming we participated in the parade. We had a float that had one of our robots throwing candy to the kids throughout the parade. Getting to see the kid’s reaction to the robot (and the candy) showed what type of an impact technology can make. We get our middle and elementary schools hooked on FIRST at a young age. We help run a lego mindstorm robotics club at all 3 of our elementary schools. We teach them about the LEGO robots and about Gracious Professionalism and Coopertition as they compete in various challenges. We also talk to them about our club and the robots we build. In the middle school we help with their Science Olympiad team and robotics club. We are able to get many of them involves and interested in FIRST by inviting them to the competition at SBPLI and giving them a tour of the pits and our robot while there. This continues to grow every year; last year over 50 middle schoolers attended and we were able to double the size of our freshmen members this season. Before attempting to teach new members of our team about actually building a robot, we teach them about building friendships. If we treat other teams the way we treat one another, the competition is much more enjoyable. Building a successful team in first requires much more than just machines and designing. The team must have teamwork and communication with each other and the community. These are critical points our team lives by. FIRST is not just about a team or a community, its the ability to network between multiple teams and communities. This is what makes FIRST so influential and powerful which is something our team tries to emulate. That's our motto after all: It's more fun when everybody's robot works! This attitude is especially developed outside of the workshop. The robotics team is not only a chance to learn about engineering and management but a great way to meet new friends. Each year, we participate in our traditional "non-engineering" activities. We host our annual "Oldies Concert" (which is a fantastic fundraiser), visit local parks to clean up litter, go holiday caroling with our alumni, help at an assisted living community and participating in the ALS ICE Bucket challenge. This growth and familiarity within the team is vital to making the FIRST experience last. In the preseason we hold workshops to educate the members on how to use the machines, understand the robots systems and the message of FIRST As kickoff approaches and build season begins, we learn technical skills as a family and hope to project these skills and characteristics of our team onto other teams. After ensuring all of 358 is on board with the attitude of FIRST, our next goal is to help FIRST grow internally by assisting our fellow teams and promoting Gracious Professionalism and Coopertition. As a veteran team with a strong foundation, great mentors, and community support, we've made an effort to help FIRST grow

We had a team member become a student ambassador for SBPLI to talk to potential sponsors for the organization to help fund the annual SBPLI regional which is the only regional on Long Island. They showed a representative form a corporation around the pits and talk about what a big impact FIRST had on them. This involvement in the local regional has helped it stay sustainable and informed multiple corporations about how FIRST helps students and what type of an impact it has on its community. Our team has also helped promote first at the annual SBPLI golf outing which helps raise funds for the regional. We demonstrated our robot to the attendees, explained how it works and promoted FIRST. The past two years we went to Half Hollow hills to assist with the field setup for the annual off season competition. We try to do all we can to help support competitions to help teams gain experience. During the Half Hollow Hills off season event we showed rookie teams what first is all about. We talked to them about our robot, the game and FIRST. The increase in rookies each year is causing FIRST to grow each year. We try to put an emphasis on helping these teams by lending a hand. The great thing about FIRST is that it actually is fun to be the new kid on the block. For the past few years, we've adopted rookies under our wing, including the Deer Park and Bridgehampton FRC teams by providing mentoring support, workshops, scouting support, and a workplace as necessary. We also organized a Workshop at our High School open to all FRC teams which included workshops on electrical, drive train, strategy, and the 2015 beta control system. We've always done our best to make competition as fun as possible for everyone. Helping others is fun, too. Over the years, we've made quite a few friends, even some from England and Brazil. It may be a world-wide organization, but it's a small world when we come together for a common cause. Something we love about FIRST is the mutual feelings of helpfulness; it puts a smile on our faces to see other teams lend us a hand, because we often require assistance as well. One cannot begin to describe the spirit of FIRST without experiencing it "FIRST"-hand. FIRST is growing exponentially, and as a proud member of the family, team 358 hopes to show the world how cool technology truly is while teaching students to appreciate the value of Coopertition and Gracious Professionalism. Starting with the individual, working our way up to our whole team, to other teams, to our community, and ultimately to the world around us, we hope to provide at least the slightest bit of inspiration, so that students everywhere can embrace the experiences and purpose that FIRST robotics has to offer.