Marquette, Michigan – March 14, 2015 – Team Cold Logic 3617, the MSHS FIRST Robotics Team was at the Peter White Library today to encourage participation in the library’s Hero summer reading program. Cold Logic brought Bruce, the robot they built last year, with them and encouraged kids at the library to take a turn operating her (Bruce is a girl).
Team Cold Logic calls themselves “a consortium of local students and mentors who share in the experience of building and competing with robots within the confines of FIRST”, their parent organization.
What is FIRST?
For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, FIRST is the organization founded by inventor Dean Kamen in 1989. FIRST is dedicated to motivating future generations to understand, use and enjoy science, engineering, and technology by inspiring young people to become leaders in those fields.
Through mentor-based programs, FIRST inspires students to build science, engineering, and technology skills, and the members of Team Cold Logic displayed their skills today, not only in the way they worked together to troubleshoot Bruce, but in the way they interacted with younger children at the library, inviting them to take control of Bruce and teaching them about robotics.
Gracious Professionalism and Coopertition
Two core values of FIRST were repeated several times as team members and mentors talked about competitions and skill building: Gracious Professionalism and Coopertition.
Team Captain Elijah described Gracious Professionalism as the idea that you can be a fierce competitor, but still treat one another with respect. Nobody is a loser. Everyone is equal and although they compete against other teams, that competition is tempered with mutual gain through cooperation.
Coopertition embodies the strong sense of teamwork that is fostered within the FIRST program. These kids not only learn from their mentors and from one another, they also have a strong desire to see their competition be the best that they can be. That means if they see a competitor struggling with something that they’ve already solved, they’re going to jump in and help them out. The idea is that you can be a fierce competitor while still assisting and enabling others any chance you get.
So What’s Next for Team Cold Logic?
We’ll be staying in touch with Team Cold Logic and talking to some of the members later this week about their upcoming competition in Escanaba on March 27 and 28. The team’s 2015 robot, Shelly, is “tagged and bagged” and ready for that competition.
After teams build their robots, the robots remain bagged until the competition to keep them from being tampered with or modified after the build time is up. During the first week of January, teams receive information about the competition. From there, teams only have six weeks to brainstorm, design, build and test their robot for competition against other Michigan high school teams. This year’s competition is called “Recycle Rush” a recycling themed game that is explained in the video below.
Want to help Team Cold Logic 3617 or just get more information about them? Like them on Facebook or contact the team directly by emailing their head mentor, Karen Jennings, at raejenn@msn.com.
