1086

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Blue Cheese
Team logo
Rookie Year: 2002
Inactive Years: {{{inactive}}}
Location: Glen Allen, VA, USA
School: Deep Run High School
Approx. size: 30 members
Team Website: Blue Cheese

Team Info · TBA page · CD pics

Contents

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Summary

Team 1086, Blue Cheese robotics, celebrates science & technology with our 2009 robot, the sharp-looking Blue Muenster! Our cheese wheel links FIRST slices together, as we enthusiastically work year-round connecting our past & present members, our school, community, mentors, & other teams. By incorporating every aspect of FIRST ideals, Team 1086 uses innovative methods to spread the word to the nation & beyond with our Flat Dean & Woodie World Wide project. We transform all our teams bringing a greater appreciation for science & technology through unique recruiting efforts & immersion in FTC, FLL & FRC. We serve as a role model for other teams, demonstrating our leadership mentoring 4 youth FLL teams formed with help from our community outreach programs, expanding this year to include FRC middle school apprentices. We redesigned our rookie FTC program & reached out to new students & parents with our Cheese Whiz Academy, all resulting in sustaining our award-winning high school FRC program. Any way you slice it, our FIRST cheese wheel is complete!

Two years ago our FRC team had only 17 student members. For the past two years we built up FRC by increasing membership 165% to over 45 active members including growing woman membership by 450%. Our combined FLL + FTC + FRC teams number over 80 members! A complete wheel of FIRST!

To build a sustainable FRC team, our cheese wheel starts at youth captivation in FLL. We build exuberance for science & technology in our 4 FLL teams as we mentor & then join them at the regional tournaments. As FLL members graduate from middle school, they are inspired to join FRC. This year 20% of 1086 are FLL graduates!

To continue fostering the excitement of our veteran members, we meet all summer having fun with team outings such as bowling & movie night. In August our veteran members eagerly attended the FRC off-season event, Battle of Baltimore. We joined in their community project, bringing 250 books to their book drive.

In September, we continued recruiting through school announcements, demonstrations at the Curriculum Fair, Back to School Night, Fee Night, Freshman Orientation & community library. During our school study period, we distributed flyers to over 500 freshmen, inviting them to our FTC/FRC informational meeting, topped with an ice cream sundae social! Freshmen make up 23% of our team!

In October, our growing team demonstrated FTC & FRC at the Virginia State Fair, & participated in the off-season event, the Robot Rumble. Using our 2008 regional winner Overdrive robot & a mostly rookie drive team, we won! What fun!

For further school & parent awareness, we submitted a team 1086 DVD themed “WOW!” to the PTA’s Reflections contest. Our team won 1st place in Video/ Film Production and qualified for the County level.

Our school recognizes robotics in their sporting community. Team 1086 and robots participate in school pep rallies, exposing 1900 students & 135 teachers to FIRST!

With our FRC rookies, we assembled a very successful FTC team. This proved to be a perfect training ground for the upcoming FRC season as the FTC mentors were our returning FRC members! We placed 1st at the VA FIRST FTC championship! Atlanta here we come!

Before FRC kickoff, our team created the 1st annual Cheese Whiz Academy organized & presented by veteran FRC members. Attendance at the 4 day Academy is a requirement for all team members & their parents. The parent workshop includes a handbook describing different ways to get involved, including fundraising, feeding our team & organizing a parent club. The students participate in workshops specializing in basic tools, drive train, electrical, pneumatics & CAD. Our academy continues year round as we offer tutoring to teammates who might be struggling in core subjects (no cheesehead left behind!)

Look out world! Woodie World Wide & Flat Dean has hit the road running! In 2008 we launched a global project spreading FIRST, reaching the ends of the earth! Animated Woodie & Dean characters traveled to over 1100 different recipients in 7 continents and over 54 countries broadcasting the FIRST mission. The project traveled to universities, family, friends & most FRC teams in the world, asking them to inspire others by spreading the word in their own communities. Travel documents included a FIRST approved likeness of Woodie & Dean with a narrative enticing kids to celebrate science & technology. Instructions showed how to start a team plus link info to 1086 & the FIRST websites. Distribution of these emails led to enthusiastic responses, reaching as far as the Serengeti Desert & Antarctica Ice Cube research teams in the South Pole!

Team 1086 enthusiastically attended the 95th Anniversary Girl Scout convention. Held at the Richmond Convention Center, over 4000 Girl Scouts & their leaders were exposed to FIRST as we demonstrated FTC robots with hands on activities. We connected over 30 Girl Scout leaders by sharing contact information with area FIRST teams. The Girl Scout Council thanked us for introducing our robotics passion to girls of all ages!

For continued community outreach & exposure, we entered a float in our school’s homecoming parade. Thousands cheered wildly when our coach rode in “The Big Cheese” convertible as our team followed on our sponsor’s Segways. Classmates erupted in roars as we were announced parade Spirit Award recipient!

To aid those in need during the holidays, our team filled 25 stockings with goodies for FOX TV’s community project.

At our school, FIRST is integrated into the curriculum. 105 students in 7 classes are exposed to robotics by our coach, nicknamed “Robot Man”. The classes range from beginning to advanced engineering with students working on real life engineering problems. Our team donated over $1,600 in FTC parts to those classes so students could build robots & have a mock competition. A great learning experience! The classes use Inventor, SolidWorks, Revit Architecture & AUTOCAD software to draw robot parts & prototypes.

Deep Run High School is unique in that it is County’s Center for Information Technology. Two veteran FRC members presented FIRST robotics at the Center’s Open House where 100’s attended. Complete with last year’s robot, they demonstrated all aspects of FIRST including project management. We are fortunate to have over 23% of our team comprised of Center students as their enthusiasm is infectious, keeping interest in technology strong.

Due to economic conditions, 1086 students are working hard at fundraising. We focus on building & maintaining partnerships with community organizations, ie Rotary Club, while developing student entrepreneurial skills thru product fundraising, ie Gearmax. This year we added 6 new sponsors, awarded NASA Growth grant & our students raised over $1300!

For the past two years, 100% of our seniors pursed higher education & this year 82% are majoring in science or technology. FIRST has given them exposure to all new career paths & made a positive influence in college choices. Team 1086 proudly has two members on FIRST scholarships. Alumni mentor teams in their own college town – we have 10 very active alumni!

Our team business book organizes our year-round effort containing team resources, including NEMO, organizational chart, calendar, news, announcements, community outreach & fundraising efforts.

Check your allegiance at the door, Team 1086 partners with veteran teams, Sparky 384 & Junkyard Dogs, 2106. We work together year round sharing FTC & FRC engineering skills. Our team also electronically mentored a rookie FTC team.

Our main sponsor, Flexicell, a palletized robotics firm, opens their facility during the build season to both Teams 1086 & 384. The accomplishments of both teams are possible with the partnership & combined effort of 65 students, 14 alumni mentors, 20 engineering & business professionals & 5 coaches. Wow!

Our team communicates through Gaggle & Google groups, Facebook & 1086bluecheese.org. It creatively contains weekly updates, our gracious professionalism essay, sponsor info & calendar.

In partnership with our parents, an organization was created to help recruit, fundraise, mentor & cheerlead during build season & regional events. We also host year round parent meetings for team progress & partnership opportunities. Last year our county regulations changed forcing us out of sponsor’s facility. 1086 parents banded together presenting 1086 & 384 with an insurance rider so both teams could continue to build at Flexicell.

A few years ago Dean asked us to fill the stands at the regional event. Today, we have at least 100 cheesehead fans cheering in the stands. Two years ago Dean asked us to spread the word to our politicians. We continued our politician outreach campaign writing to national politicians, the President, leading Vice President Candidates, 400 VA Representatives, Senators, Governors and Delegates. We received responses from VA Gov Tim Kaine, US Senator Eric Cantor, US Rep. Moran, Attorney General McDonnell & Gov Schwarzenegger. Homework last year was media exposure. Team 1086 has 7 videos on YouTube with 313 views, on Wikipedia, published in the Richmond Times Dispatch, Deep Run Sentinel, PTA newsletters, Henrico County Ledger, Henrico Citizen, Behind the Design 2, Rack n Roll & local community newspapers. We were featured in a PBS FIRST robotics documentary, appeared on HCPS TV viewed on-line 213 times & aired on TV 42 times. This year Dean asked us to build an alumni base. We have a 6-year alumni contact list currently updating through our Team Facebook group.

Bringing all these slices of FIRST together is a team of committed individuals working together to make engineering, science & magic happen. Building on the successes of the past, including winning the 2008 Chairman’s Award & numerous robot awards, we are expanding our wheel of influence further across the world each year. Any way you slice it, it’s FIRST & Team 1086!

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Competitions

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Major Projects

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Robots

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Accomplishments

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Sponsors

  • Flexicell
  • NASA
  • McKesson Corporation
  • Showbest Fixtures Corporation
  • Network Medical
  • Segway of Richmond
  • ECK Supply Company
  • PTC
  • Century Construction
  • Tridium
  • BMG Metals Inc.
  • Henrico Education Foundation
  • Mad Science of Richmond
  • Qimonda of Richmond
  • Minuteman Press
  • Caper Foundation
  • GearMax USA
  • The Kutz Family
  • Beth Rutherford
  • The Walinski Family
  • The Pfab Family
  • The Rutherford/Stiebel Family
  • The Cotton/Edelman Family
  • The Boyce Family
  • The Hettema Family
  • The Fuller Family
  • The Anderson Family
  • The Levet Family
  • The Palmer Family
  • The Stepp Family
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Officers

  • Josh Anders -- Captain (3 years)
  • Amar Gopinath -- Captain (3 years)
  • Matt Petrie -- Captain (3 years)
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Alumni

  • Mike O'Brien - Virginia Tech
  • Alex Billet - VCU (FIRST Scholarship)
  • Don Zimmerman - J. Sargeant Reynolds
  • Mike Young - VCU
  • Bobby Anderson - Longwood
  • Colin Windmuller - University of Southern California (Scholarship)
  • Ian Wolfe - University of Alabama (Full Scholarship)
  • Sara Bailey - VCU
  • Vikram Rajasekaran - VCU (Leadership Scholarship)
  • Meg Scott - University of Kentucky
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Mentors

  • Mr. Clarke "The Big Cheese"
  • Ms. Nolen
  • Mr. & Mrs. Kutz
  • Dave Cohen "Jumper"
  • Thomas Halish
  • Dave Underwood
  • Devon Henriques
  • Mrs. Edelman
  • Mr. & Mrs. Walinski
  • Mrs. Rutherford
  • Mr. Curfman
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External Links

Index of teams:

1-100 101-200 201-300 301-400 401-500 501-600 601-700 701-800 801-900 901-1000 1001-1100 1101-1200 1201-1300 1301-1400 1401-1500 1501-1600 1601-1700 1701-1800 1801-1900 1901-2000 2001-2100 2101-2200 2201-2300 2301-2400 2401-2500 2501-2600 2601-2700 2701-2800 2801-2900 2901-3000

Index of teams by region:

NH NJ VA OR AZ FL GL PIT MO CT MD DT GA SAC LI OH CO IL NY PA CA ON TX SC SJ MI WI

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