One of our small group activities is designing and fabricating parts using 3D printers.
We have a CNC class every summer. Throughout the school year we are then able to machine parts for use on our FRC robots (and some fun stuff too)!
We’ve launched high altitude balloons many times over the years. We work on challenges put out by the Global Space Balloon Challenge. Our RoboDawgs have learned lots over the years concerning wind speed, long periods in sub-zero temperatures, instrument packing and tracking.
How can get out in front of people and let them know what we do? We built a mini-football shooter to shoot them into the stands at home football games! That worked so well for a few years that we built a shooter for t-shirts and launch those into the stands, too!
RoboDawgs are able to learn about quad-copters and drones in another small group opportunity. We’ve helped the band with formations and taken footage during football games. We also program autonomous flights.
Our primary goal is to have our team members be successful at the four-year higher education institution of their choice. We are proud to have a 100% high school graduation rate after 20 years and 98% of our RoboDawgs move on to earn undergraduate degrees.
As members of the high school RoboDawgs team, we mentor elementary FIRST Lego League JR, FIRST Lego League, VEX IQ teams or VEX EDR middle school teams. We also try to mentor and help other teams when we travel to competitions who do not have the same resources we have available to us.
Our goal is not to win, but it’s nice when it happens. We have a successful program that every once in a while ends in a tournament win!
