Adventures of a Dean's List Finalist

I woke up this morning experiencing a weird mixture of "Oh no it's time to get up" and "Yay St. Louis!". Between the weekend of the North Carolina Regional and now my excitement for the Championship has been slowly, but surely, growing.  I became a Dean's List Finalist the first weekend of April, definitely one of the more shocking moments of my FIRST life.  I was fortunate enough to have been able to attend the Championship event in St. Louis even though my team itself did not qualify for the event.

After flying into St. Louis this morning,  my parents and I walked over to the Edward Jones Dome to check out the event.  Even just walking towards the Dome, it was easy to tell that there was a FIRST event in town.  Colorful t-shirts,  crazy hats and teens sporting safety glasses were everywhere.   Passing teams on the street, I could hear snatches of conversations about robots, the venue and their team's chances against the competition.

Finally, we arrived the entrance of the Dome and were greeted by this sign:

As per instructions, I headed straight towards pit administration to check in as a Dean's List Finalist.  Along with an incredibly nice welcome from the volunteers, I was given this:

 Only in FIRST would receiving a button mean so much (:


After checking in with pit admin, I really had nothing specific I had to do.  Honestly, being at a FIRST event without a team is incredibly weird.  Most of the time at tournaments everyone's schedules are full from interviews, social events and, of course, robot runs.  Being without a team, I was free to walk around  the entire pit area, including all the sponsor booths, college row and, my absolute favorite, the FIRST Lego League pit area.

As most people know, I got my start in FIRST through FLL when I was 10.  I also had the opportunity to go to FIRST Championships while on an FLL team when I was 13.  I remembering being so amazed by all of the teams there and at the "big kids" who were part of FRC.  Being able to go back and visit the next generation of FIRST students is an awesome opportunity that makes me realize how fantastic this program really is.  You can experience many things walking around the FLL section of Championships. For example:

A team from Japan can ask you to attach a paper flower to a tree to help decorate their pit area:

Or you can see a bunch of bicycles that a team from the Netherlands is donating to a conservation organization in St. Louis:

Or, if you're extremely lucky, you could run into Dean Kamen talking to a team while surrounded by people taking pictures:

Obviously, I had a great time talking to kids and seeing all sorts of amazing things (:

I spent the rest of the day walking around the pit areas and watching a few matches inside the Edward Jones Dome.  It was awesome.  And, as if my day couldn't get any better, I met Buzz Lightyear.  It was cool.

Tomorrow is the official Dean's List Ceremony where the 10 winners of the Dean's List Award will be revealed.  While I personally have no great expectations for the award, I'm incredibly excitement to meet and talk to Dean and Woodie as well as all the other finalists from around the United States.

Another blog post will be up tomorrow!

-Annalise

How FIRST has impacted my life!

When I first joined the Flying Platypi,  I had no idea what I was getting myself into.  My first impression of the team had me thinking that FRC was all about building a robot and making friends, but I quickly figured out that FIRST is much more than just that.  I joined in October (which is the off-season) so I was first led to believe that the time required was about 2 hours a week.  This is definitely not the case when it comes to FIRST Robotics.

 After about a month of meeting one night a week, the official FRC season started and I was along for the ride.  That Saturday I got my first taste of what being on a robotics team really meant.  The team spent the whole day coming up with ideas to solve that year's challenge.  I was amazed at the way some of my teammates solved problems.  Once the robot was designed, the real work started and we began to meet at Blue Ridge Tool, the machine shop where our team builds.  I had never been in a machine shop before so I didn’t know what to expect. When I walked through those doors and saw the mills and lathes and other machines I never knew existed, I was instantly hooked and had to learn more.  Although I spent most of my time with the programming group, I still got to use the machines and experience things that I had never done before.

 After 6 short weeks and many, many hours of building and programming, it was finally tournament time and all the work the team put into the robot was going to be put to the test.  When I walked into the arena at my first tournament I was shocked to see all the teams and people working hard to put the finishing touches on their robot to get it ready for competition.  The tournament was a blast and I met lots of new people and made a few friends. 

Now finishing up my third year of FIRST and looking back at what I have learned,  I see that being on a robotics team is about much more than just the robot: it’s about the skills you learn, the experiences you gain, and sharing that with others.  I have learned not only how to work with a team, but how to become a better leader, how to teach other students, and how to be a gracious professional.  FIRST has helped me decide what I want to major in as well as given me many opportunities to try new things I never would have thought possible before joining a FIRST team.  I have found my time on The Flying Platypi very rewarding and I plan to continue in FIRST for my senior year of high school. After I graduate I plan on coming back as a mentor to help sustain my favorite FIRST team. 

-Daniel

Summer Plans!

We may be done with build season and our competitions, but we aren't stopping here. This summer our team has a lot planned from training sessions for new and veteran members in anything that they want to learn more about, continuing our outreach events all over the state, helping start FLL teams and FTC teams, helping out our community and others through charity events, and most of all having fun in the company of friends. We have a lot planned and hope to get many students interested in STEM and FIRST. We can't wait to continue spreading FIRST and what it means to us across North Carolina.

Summer here we come!

How FIRST has impacted my life!

When I first joined the Flying Platypi I had no idea of what I was in for. In the first few weeks I was amazed by what we were expected to do. We had to raise money for the team, write an essay for the Chairman's award, create individual parts for the robot, and write code for the robot, among many other things. But after we finished the robot within the timeframe of build season and completed all the other marketing tasks we were finally ready to go to the regionals. The regionals we went to were fantastic experiences. It is amazing to see so many people in one place that have all been given the same tasks to solve and with the same interest in science and technology. It creates a sense of community between all the teams even though some may have not even encountered each other.
Last year we went to nationals. It was truly a sight to see FIRST almost take over St. Louis. At times like lunch, wherever you looked you could see FIRST teams walking around. Going to the competitions and just being part of FIRST is truly an original experience and I am glad that FIRST has shown me that there are so many people in my generation that are interested in science and technology.


--Evan

Last Day of the North Carolina regional!

Wow! It has been a long, exciting day! Overall the Flying Platypi is proud of all the work that each and everyone one of our students has done this year.

The second and final day of the NC regional was just as hectic and fun as the first. Everyone woke up in the morning ready to start the day. The drive team and robot did very well in every match we were in and became better as the matches, on both days of the regional, progressed. And even though we were not chosen to progress on into the finals; we were all very proud of the drive team, the scouts, and everyone else on the team whom came together and made it possible for us to win the Entrepreneurship award and the regional Website award.

We are very proud of Annalise Wenig for winning the regional Dean's List award. This is a huge honor for her and we are very excited to support her as her submission will go on to the National level to see if she wins there. We are all very proud of her and all that she has done for the team and FIRST.

This summer will be filled with learning, spreading FIRST and our team, and having fun as a team. We will have summer classes to prepare newcomers and current members in new areas to them. This is the perfect opportunity for students: new and old to learn something they think they have an interest in. We will be continuing our outreach program and will be trying to reach as many people as we can. The team as a whole will also be spending time together whether that is going to see a movie, having a movie night at someone's house, or having a summer get together with students, mentors, and families in a park. We may be focused on our mission but we will have fun along the way.

Even though our Build Season and Competition season is ending; we are still going to be active. This is a year round team and our mission for the summer is to do more, go more places, and let everyone who will listen know about what we do and the impact it has on our lives.

Summer and Off-season here we come!

First Day of the North Carolina regional!!!

Everyone is having so much fun at the regional. We have so many students, mentors, parents, siblings, and sponsors here supporting us. The Flying Platypi would like to thank everyone who has helped us get this far including our wonderful mentors, sponsors, and parents. You help us all do what we are so passionate about.

Well today was the first day of the North Carolina regional in Raleigh, North Carolina and we all had a ton of fun but are thoroughly exhausted. We were really happy to have won the regional Website Award and the Entrepreneurship Award (Business Plan). It was really exciting for everyone on the team to have won these awards and again we owe it all to our sponsors, mentors, and parents whom encourage, support, and help us achieve all that we can.

Now we are all going to get some very needed rest; for tomorrow is going to be a very long, exciting day. We can't wait!

Day two here we come!