Ferradermis members have been busy doing STEM outreach this fall as they train new members and wait for the launch of the new season in January.
On Thursday, November 7, team members Erison Dreksler, Margaret Brown, and Preston Miller spent the morning with the sixth-grade language arts classes at Whitewater Middle School. The sixth graders had just finished reading the book Wild Robot, and the trio of Ferradermis members was invited by teacher Alyssa Orlowski to demonstrate their robot and share stories that paralleled the themes of the book. Throughout the morning, the students focused mainly on the theme of change – how the game changes each year, how the robot changes throughout the season, how the team has evolved, and how their involvement with the team has changed them and even their future plans.
On Saturday, November 9, a small group of team members traveled to the FIRST Robotics Competition Training Day held at Waukesha County Technical College. Students were able to soak up a lot of great information from presentations by other teams, and they also contributed two presentations of their own. Ferradermis Electrical Subteam Lead Erison Dreksler offered a session on how to use AutoCAD to document a robot’s electrical system. Ferradermis Business Subteam Lead Andrew Zimmermann conducted a session called Securing Your Team’s Financial Future. During the presentation, Zimmermann had other teams conduct a SWOT analysis for their team and then shared a Ferradermis SWOT analysis. He also shared information about the team’s endowment fund at the Whitewater Community Foundation, the recent creation of the WUSD Robotics Booster Club supporting robotics in grades 4-12, and the strong bond between our team and the school district, which treats the team like a sport. Also attending workshops were Ferradermis Technical Team Captain Andrew O’Toole and team member Vivian Harris.
Sunday, November 10, brought 31 Daisy and Brownie Girl Scouts to Whitewater High School for a Robotics Badge Workshop. Eleven members of Ferradermis rotated the girls through six different sessions throughout the afternoon, depending on their age level. Brownies were able to learn about simple machines and see how they could be used to design a robot for a FIRST Lego League robot mission, while Daisies created binary bracelets and learned about buggy code by giving directions to move a Ferradermis student through a physical maze. Both groups got to experience SNAP Circuits to learn about electricity and used an app called Tynker Junior to learn about coding. Both groups also spent some time with the Ferradermis robot, learning how it uses sensors and playing catch with it. The brownies learned to code small Sphero robots, and the Daisies worked with line following robots called Ozobots. As a result, the Daisies were able to earn their, “How Robots Move,” badge, and the Brownies earned two badges, “Showcasing Robots” and “Programming Robots.”
This weekend ten members of the team will be volunteering at the Mukwonago FIRST Lego League (FLL) Regional in order to learn what will be required when Ferradermis hosts the Whitewater FLL Regional on Sunday, December 8. Whitewater will be hosting 24 FLL teams from around the state for a full day of competition and judging that day. That event will be free and open to the public, and we invite the community to join us to see the FLL teams from Lincoln, Lakeview, Washington, and the Middle School in action as well as demonstrations from the Whitewater Middle School Iron Dragons FIRST Tech Challenge team and the Ferradermis FIRST Robotics Competition Team.
Article and Photos Submitted by Laura Masbruch
Whitewater High School Robotics Advisor
lmasbruch@wwusd.org
