At the competition, the robots had to hang inner tubes in the shape of the competition’s logo, which was a triangle, a circle and a square.

The team got off to a rocky start as it was one of many teams that did not pass inspection. Senior and Co-Capt. Kaitlyn Rendon described the experience as “hectic.”

“We had some problems, but it wasn’t anything bad enough to keep us out,” Rendon said. “We switched our game strategy in the middle of it, and it brought us up to 21st place, when we were 40-something before.”

Senior and Co-Capt. Chris Carter said although he had hoped the team would do better, he was satisfied with the team’s accomplishments.

“We didn’t do as well as I had hoped, but we fixed all the problems that arose and helped 15 other robots pass inspection so they could go out on the field,” Carter said.

The team’s performance improved from last year, which Rendon attributes to the large number of seniors on the team.

“People were way more focused than they were last year,” Rendon said. “We took it a little more seriously because a majority of the people are seniors. This was our last year to try to win.”

Now that the competition that the team has been working toward is over, the team will begin preparing for next year, junior Brian Gilbreath said.

“We’re ordering extra parts so that next year, we can build two robots that are the exact same so that we’ll have one here to practice with while one is being sent off,” Gilbreath said. “That will give us more practice time.”

Gilbreath is optimistic about the team’s improvement.

“We’re slowly progressing, so I hope next year we do as well as we did this year or even better,” Gilbreath said.

In an effort to further that progress, all of this year’s seniors will return next year as mentors to the team.

“This is what we love to do,” Rendon said. “It would feel weird not to do it again. When I joined the team, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life at all, but it interested me so much that I want to continue doing it.”

Mary Rojo
Managing Editor

Seniors of the robotics team utilize their leadership qualities by creating a petition against a Gold-Purple Schedule–an alternating schedule that splits the robotics team so that the extracurricular hour limit is met.

All school organizations working on a task during after school hours have an eight hour time limit. Recent robotics teams have put in up to 40 hours a week to meet building deadlines for the robot, which decreased each members’ physical capability.

Career and Technology Director Stephen Rhoades feels that the new schedule is the best idea for the robotics team and will strengthen the team’s overall performance.

“Fatigue can have adverse affects on staff performances– personal, academic and extracurricular,” Rhoades said. “I believe that the new schedule will allow robotics members to perform to the best of their abilities in all endeavors.”

Robotics Supervisor Robyn Segrest is in agreement with Rhoades in that the Gold-Purple schedule has been set for every members’ benefit, but believes the team has established the freedom to disagree.

“First off, I am very proud that they have taken the initiative to do this,” Segrest said. “What I don’t think that they realize is how difficult their senior year is in the spring, but they have earned the right to petition.”

Senior Ariel Hardin, co-captain of the robotics team believes in assisting the underclassmen and teaching them in-depth knowledge on a one-to-one basis.

“We know what we are doing and with us being there from last year, we can help the new members,” Hardin said. “ We have so many new members on the team that they should be on the new schedule so they don’t get worn out.”

According to Rhoades, new members have not yet experienced the long work hours and the demand it takes to build a robot. Sophomore and one of the new members to the team, Shelby Walters is unsure how to take the Gold-Purple schedule.

“I don’t agree with the schedule because it should be our choice of how long we want to be here and on what days,” Walters said, “but I can see where Mrs.. Segrest doesn’t want us to get burned out.”
Sophomore Juan Alvarado see both the ups and downs that the Gold-Purple schedule creates.

“The main benefit that will come from the Gold-Purple schedule is that we can be closer as a smaller group,” Alvarado said, “but there is a down side because you won’t get to know everyone on the whole team.”

Senior and co-captain, Jeffin James, encourages the team to strive for what they want and to work hard no matter what the circumstances.

“The petition is a step to show the incentive that we want to be here and that we want to work hard,” James said. “Going alternate days can get confusing but if we can step up and have people there every day, we can accomplish a lot in a short amount of time.”

The petition is still in the process of being signed and will then be presented to Rhoades for consideration.

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Jeffin James and Ariel Hardin were recently named team captains of LHS Robotics team

The 2009-2010 Robotics team captains, Ariel Hardin and Jeffin James, were announced last Monday.

According to Supervisor Robyn Segrest, the format for choosing the team captains changed this year.

“Before, we’d always let the students choose their team captain; this year, to get away from it being a popularity contest, we shifted to a format where nominations were made by the team,” she said. “If the nominee accepted the nomination, then we had them answer a set of questions. The questionnaires were handed over to a selection committee made up of teachers who were involved with the program, and they made their selections based on those answers.”

The selection committee was made up of welding teacher Jeffrey Pillows, drafting teacher Robert Foley, and Building Trades teacher Calvin Fry.

“For me, after reading all the responses, I found that some had more experience than others in handling certain situations,” Pillows said.

Fry said that in the students’ answers to the questionnaire, he looked for strength and a lack of favoritism.

“I looked for someone who would follow the project through from beginning to end and that  their main focus was to get the robot completed,” Fry said. “Friendships and favoritism are out when you’re doing projects like that. I looked for someone who would put his heart into the project, not just someone who was trying to be the leader of something but who would take the project first.”

Although the questionnaire was the only aspect taken into consideration to choose the captains, Segrest said the questions required practical thinking.

“The returning team members and I worked together to create those questions based on issues we’d faced in the past,” she said. “From there I took the questions and fine-tuned them and changed them from yes/no questions to scenario questions where they really had to sit and think and give an answer that they would follow through with. And really, the scenario questions that we developed gave us a very good overall picture of the individuals.”

Besides the format for determining the team captains, another thing that is changing this year is the team captain role.

“It’s shifting from being a symbolic position to being more of an integral position across the team,” Segrest said. “As opposed to being a team lead, where they’ll be very focused in one area, the team captain has to focus on everybody. They have to take care of everybody emotionally, they have to help me keep things organized and meet due dates, they’re going to help me structure the team, and they’re going to be the face of the team at certain types of meetings.”

Segrest said Hardin and James are “well-matched” as co-captains.

“[James] is a third-year team member, lots of experience, and actually has some teaching experience now because of his job. He’s an assistant taekwondo instructor, so he’s gained some experience on leadership and how to focus people,” Segrest said. “Our other team captain has younger children in her home, so she’s used to giving direction. I think that with their guidance and direction, we will have a very successful team.”

Hardin said she is prepared to help the team improve their time management.

“Last year we got behind on a lot of things that we did,” she said. “I would really like to get the team focused this year and just keep them on schedule because we really need to get things done.”

James said he expects that he and Hardin will work well together this year.

“We both have a lot of what it takes to help bring this team together and hopefully have this team mesh together as well,” he said. “I think this year would the best team we’ve ever had, so it will make it easier on us to actually function as a team.”

However, Segrest said it could take time for the team to start working well together, especially since the majority of this year’s team consists of new members.

“They’re not quite a cohesive unit yet, but that also comes with having six veterans on the team and 30 new students,” she said. “And it’s always like that. It takes some time to become that unit, and you really don’t start functioning that way until about the fourth or fifth day of build season; that’s when it’s all-out, go for broke, pedal to the metal, don’t look back. It’s going to take some time to get that going because we’re starting so much earlier this year, but they’re getting there.”