Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
A Successful Season Volume 2, Issue 3
Team Pheonix News
2012 Pheonix Members
Alma High School’s FIRST Robotics Team
April 2012
Let’s get ready to rumble!
FIRST— For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology
http://usfirst.org Check out what it’s all about!
Students Charlie Morey Chase Austin Stone Austin Jorge Benitez Broderic Bender Caleb Bieske Kaylee Bloom Korey Hagen Quentin Gibson Mentors John Choinard Zach Dickerson Jake Hirchman Matt Good
Jay Green Jenny Ho Samantha Smith Rachel Kolb Luke Mallory Chase Ramirez Melissa Rivera Elijah Rutkowski
Advisors Gary Shimunek Steve Kettler
Contact Information Gary Shimunek
1500 North Pine Avenue
Alma, MI 48801
(989) 463-311
There are few words that can sum up the entire season effectively, but senior Charlie Morey leaves Team Pheonix with these words of reflection: “Keep pressing towards higher goals. There can be no complacency in robot-ics.” Each student and men-tor are all are in agree-ment that our skills in en-gineering came a long, long way from last year’s season to now. The FIRST program provided us with the means to con-quer and succeed be- yond our wildest dreams,
and we stand today with a winning robot that is spe-cifically engineered to shoot basketballs and bal-ance on designated bridges with opponents and alliances alike. Our rookie year, our goal was to “make it move.” After immense success, we subcon-sciously knew the goal for the 2012 season would be to “make it do something bigger than ourselves.” We did just that, and more. Engineering, critical thinking, and communica-tion skills are only a small portion of the lessons
both students and men-tors learned from being a part of this program. It is rewarding to say that Team Pheonix made edu-cation fun. We would like to give a commodious “thank you” to all of our sponsors, mentors, and students this season. We look forward to many more exciting seasons ahead of us.
Thank you for being a part of our experience.
Highlights of our success from
competitions at the Waterford
and West Michigan events can
be found on page 2.
CARSON CITY ALMA EDMORE
C & S Steel
Precision Machine
Thank you,
2012 Sponsors!
Pat’s Auto, Inc.
SEELEY AUTO SALES
Aircraft Precision
Products
Waterford Event Highlights
West Michigan Event Highlights
This event was held March 9-10 at Waterford Mott High School.
• Ranked 27th out of 40 teams before alliance selection for the elimination
bracket began
• Team 3548, The Lamphere Battering Rams, selected us as their second pick for
their alliance which also consisted of Team 3175, Knight Vision
• Finished the tournament as quarter-finalists
This event was held March 16-17 at Grand Valley State University.
• Ranked 24th out of 40 teams before alliance selection for the elimination
bracket began
• Awarded the West Michigan District Imagery Award that celebrates
attractiveness in engineering and outstanding visual aesthetic integration from
the machine to the team appearance
Written by senior Kaylee Bloom
My Experience with Team Pheonix
It wasn’t until the final
day of the West Michigan
Event that I came to real-
ize though my time with
Team Pheonix was done,
my experience was not
over.
This program has bene-
fited me in more ways
than one, from my out-
look on engineering and
science skills to team-
work and sportsmanship
essentials. Though I can’t
claim I was the master-
mind behind all the tech-
nical ideas and functions
of our robot, I found
several other parts to be
actively involved in. The
FIRST Robotics program
isn’t about just building a
robot. It’s about the criti-
cal thinking, building
skills, robot performance,
distinguished sportsman-
ship, community involve-
ment, and much, much
more. That’s what's so
unique about this pro-
gram in a high school
setting. There is more
than one way to challenge
yourself.
While writing this jour-
nal, senior Charlie Morey
told me, “I will miss hav-
ing the amount of human
and material resources
available to me. Over the
past two years I have
worked with and met
some of the most crea-
tive and intelligent people
in the area, all because of
Team Pheonix.” I give a
million thanks to all who
made it possible for Alma
High School to have such
a program. This is a great
experience to have in my
back pocket as I rapidly
approach my future.
It’d be hard to put to
words my experience
with FIRST and Team
Pheonix. When I think
about what my favorite
part has been these past
two seasons, I remember
having the honor to be
on the drive team during
the elimination rounds at
the 2011 West Michigan
Event. I should never be
allowed on the drive
team normally, but be-
cause we were lacking
students that day due to a
Science Olympiad com-
petition, I had to step in.
Although I had anxious
jitters as I stepped on to
the arena, when the
teams of the opposing
alliance greeted us and
wished us luck, I realized
the true values of FIRST.
Robotics is a sport all
in itself. You practice,
push yourself, challenge
your teammates, face
epic wins, and fix mis-
takes after disappointing
losses. The beauty of this
sport compared to the
traditional high school
sport is you are also chal-
lenged to engineer your
method of competition.
What a basketball player
would call a basketball,
we would call our robot.
We engineer our key to
success.
Thank you to all who
made my journey possi-
ble. I’m honored to call
myself an alumni of
Team Pheonix.
Seniors, what’s the
highlight of your
robotics career?
“The event I cherish is the
first time I launched the
mini-bot during Logomotion
2011.”
-Charlie Morey
“I did a lot of this year’s
programming from last year’s
knowledge!”
-Jenny Ho
“Seeing the robot come to-
gether both seasons was a
really rewarding experience.”
-Korey Hagen
“Receiving the Imagery
Award at our first ever
competition at Waterford last
year was definitely the
highlight. I will never forget
the feeling of utter joy
walking onto the field to re-
ceive our trophy!”
-Samantha Smith
Special Thanks to:
For Inspiration and
Recognition of
Science and Technology
For teaching us
Respect, Unity, Spirit,
and Heart
If you are interested in
Team Pheonix visiting your school,
business, or organization,
you may contact Gary Shimunek at
