The Scalawags earn money by having team carwashes and can drives. From the can drives we have earned $900 since April, which is enough for about five kids to go out of town for a weekend of competition. The car washes have been successful, and we really enjoy seeing the public and telling them what we do. Afterward, we usually get otter pops or ice cream, and some times even lemonade from our sponsor, North Santiam Coffee Company! We always appreciate the parents helping. We didn’t schedule a carwash for July, so there will probably be one in August.
The last few weeks we have been helping at summer school at the LHS and 7 oak. At seven oak we showed them how we built Percy. At 7 oak we let the kids drive Percy and show them how the t-shirt cannon works with a dish towel. At LHS we focused on building hardware and writing code for VEX robots in Mr. Helland’s robotics class. Scalawags’ team members worked side by side with the kids through all of these things.
Like all FIRST teams everywhere, the Scalawags are just waiting until we can be together again. We really miss our shop, our time together, and our robots. The team also wants to thank our sponsors for their continued support – several have reached out to us in our time of quarantine and had words of wisdom and comfort.
We are trying to keep things moving through virtual meetings and projects we can all work on at home like updating the Business Plan, designing a float for this summer’s Strawberry Festival Parade, and coming up with socially distant fundraising ideas. Stay tuned for lots of cool stuff, just as soon as we can leave the house safely!
The Scalawags are still slaving away on their latest masterpiece. Annie Snoakley has been a demanding mistress, but the team feels like they are finally getting a handle on her. After 2 weeks of liposuction, she is a slim and trim 125#. It’s a good thing, too, because there’s not many more places to drill a hole or lighten a bracket! Shout out to our local vet clinic, Faithful Friends, for making their scale available to us. That’s “weigh” easier for figuring out how much more she needs to lose!
Programming is continuing to debug and test. Team 1359 had really hoped to get some driving practice in before we left for our first event on Friday, but it was not meant to be! Instead, we’ll be running by the seat of our pants, learning as we go. Scrappy pirates like ourselves never shy away from a challenge such as that, and the team is excited about getting her out on the field.
The Scalawags will be competing in Auburn, WA, this weekend. We will post links to the twitch channel on our social media as soon as we know it. Tune in and cheer us on! It’s a little nerve wracking to be going so far away – we’ll be the only Oregon team there – but we are excited to reconnect with teams we don’t see often, and make some new friends while we’re at it! ARRRRRGH!
Damien is perfecting his ironing skills – to great effect as the bumpers turned out fantastic!
Jo and Nathan worked on a little history homework while they waited for the programmers to work out bugs in the code.
A place to practice climbing, and pirates swarming Annie, removing weight. Faithful Friends’ dog scale works pretty well for robots!
The team worked late on Valentine’s Day night – after a hearty dinner of nachos – to get the robot put together for Scrimmage the next day. All her parts and pieces came together… and most importantly, she gained a name. We are pleased to introduce Annie Snoakley. She was named for legendary sharp shooter Annie Oakley – continuing our recent tradition of borrowing the names of strong women – and Star Wars Supreme Leader Snoke – because some days you need just a hint of the Dark Side to get things done.
It took us until early afternoon, but we did get the robot on the field for Scrimmage this year! We were not able to test the ball handling system, but we learned that our motors were pretty peppy. So peppy, in fact, that she tipped on her first outing when Jo tried to change directions too quickly.
She mostly passed inspection… except for the pesky 20 pounds she will have to lose in the next few weeks. Looks like it’s celery and aerobics for Annie! We are hoping to get her slimmed down and shooting properly before next Sunday, when we have an opportunity for another informal scrimmage at DW Fritz’s practice field in Wilsonville. The team spent their President’s Day debugging the code, swapping out motors and gearboxes, and reworking our bumpers. All in a day’s work!
As we cruise into the 5th week of Build Season, we are starting to see what looks like a robot! She is taking shape nicely, and the team is working extra hours this week in the hope that we will have a functioning robot by Saturday’s scrimmage at Corvallis High School. Subsystems are being placed, and electronics are going in!
Allan is learning to use the BIG saw, while Little Ryan and Flounder help Jo with the robot.
The art team is creating to their heart’s content, and the stuff they are putting together is pretty cool. Ships, asteroids, cities and control panels, they’ve got it all! Buttons are being stock piled, and we have a cool idea for some limited edition buttons… stay tuned on that one.
Molly is getting real with the glue gun while Sav and Damien work the button maker.
Finally, a shout out to the Mom Squad, who have continued with concessions during Build Season, while the kids are busy building a robot. You ladies are the best nacho slingers around and we love you!
Time flies when you’re having fun! Here we are at the end of Week 3 and there’s lots of progress to show for it!
Kelli is getting the frame welded! This year the frame is flat as can be! Damien’s first spray painting project! He’ll be tagging before we know it!Molly always has time for a little whipped cream. Pirates don’t worry about table manners much.
Programming has the color system working!
Kegan still has ten fingers, so this went well!First City is getting a heavy coat of Plasti-Dip… That should protect it from asteroids!
We are super excited to start putting subsystems on the frame and see how she looks! Check out our social media for more updates!
The Scalawags will again host students in grades 4-8 in our shop for a morning of STEAM learning and fun on Saturday, February 22, from 9:30 – 11 am. We will meet students in Room 724 of LHS. For more information, contact Kelly at kelly.cleveland@lebanon.k12.or.us
A record setting 22 budding engineers showed up for Jr Robotics at the Scalawags’ shop this morning. After watching the kick off video, they brainstormed ways to play the game. As soon as the creative juices were flowing, the young pirates sketched out ideas and built models of their design out of LEGOs.
The inspiration is strong with this group!
When all ideas had been admired and explained, the Jr Robot crew walked down the hall to Team 1359’s shop and got an update on what the Scalawags have planned. Although they were not able to see any of our prototypes in action, the Jrs were excited to see that the competition robot will incorporate some of the same ideas as their LEGO models! Great minds think alike!
