HS Robotics Mentoring Program
TPSF Summer Academy 2016
Week 4 Review
We have just completed our final week of the TPSF Summer Academy. It has been truly a pleasure to work with every one of the HS Mentors. I look forward to watching each of them grow and build capacity with robotics as they spend time in Tustin Unified. I would like to invite each of the HS Mentors to continue working with the middle teams throughout the season if interested. I will also be in need of elementary referees and field set up throughout the season.
Students, make sure to check your emails throughout the year. I will be contacting you as volunteer opportunities arise!
Thanks for being so incredibly awesome at what you do!!
Cari Williams
TUSD Robotics Lead
Team Hewes
With mentor Blaise from Foothill High School.
Team Utt
With mentor Dominick from Beckman High School.
Team Orchard Hills
With mentor Nihar from Beckman High School.
Team Pioneer
With mentor Alex from Beckman High School.
Team Currie
With mentor Michelle from Beckman High School.
Team Columbus Tustin
With mentor Ashwin from Beckman High School.
First Scrimmage
Below is the first attempt at playing the game VEX Starstruck by Team Hewes (red) and Team Pioneer (blue).
First Scrimmage
Elementary Mentors
On Tuesday, the mentors provided a tournament experience for the elementary students. Each team played two teamwork matches and one individual match. The mentors practiced refereeing, announcing, and scorekeeping skills. They will be a great asset during the elementary competition season!
Referee Tasks
Ryan acting as the Emcee and Riley keeping time.
The Mentors
Aidan, Riley and Ryan providing a real tournament style scrimmage for the elementary robotics students.
Keeping Score
Aidan uses Google Spreadsheets to keep track of scores and sort to calculate standings.
Troubleshooting Pneumatics
We have learned many lessons about pneumatics this summer. The main lesson is that the air pistons just don't provide as much power as we would like and that a really good bike pump is essential. However, they did come up with some useful ways to integrate pneumatics into the Starstruck robots this season. Below are the links to each presentation created by the three troubleshooting teams. Thank you for all of your hard work!
Blaise and Connor on the Foothill Troubleshooting Team
William and Angelica on the Tustin HS Troubleshooting Team
Tim and Alan on the Beckman Troubleshooting Team
An Intro to Programming
Elementary robotics students were introduced to programming for the first time in week 4. The HS mentors taught students the basics of programming using the software Robot C through Robot Virtual Worlds. Students had fun playing the VEX IQ competition game of the season on a laptop. They were also introduced to a graphical type of programming language based on Python with drag and drop code that links together in blocks. This helps teach new programmers the logic and structure of programing.
Vianna Teaching Robot Virtual Worlds
Playing Crossover Virtually
Aidan Lends a Helping Hand
Thanks again for a great summer!
See you all in the Fall.
Cari Williams