Let’s Raffle!🎟
This week, we at the finance and media sector started mapping out merch designs for the raffle and decided on which articles of clothing to customize. Each group helped to design the flyers and we used all sorts of bright colors to make them pop out. We also started to make the website that we are planning to send a link out to when we send out the raffle itself. We are still awaiting the day to send out the links, but we made sure to get everything ready for the drop. Over at the mechanical sector they worked on and finished the gear box. They also installed the pinion to transfer the force of the motor to the gearbox.
This week, the entire BirchBots came together to do our candygram event. A candy gram is a bag of Valentine’s Day candy with a card on the front saying who it’s from (anonymous if chosen), who it’s to, and a funny or sweet message on the back. We sent out surveys to the entire school to figure out how many candygrams we should make and the messages people want written. We had a Venmo at the end for payment. Then, on the day before Valentines Day, we set up a stand in the student lounge and alternated who was running it to gain even more exposure and convince more people to buy them. On Valentine’s Day, we sent out our best singers and guitarists to hand out the candygrams in the middle of class with a little song and dance to make it more fun and festive. Big thank you to William, Julian and Gavin for assisting Sammie and Grace in handing out the candygrams and for giving a great performance. Overall, everybody had a great time and it was a good bonding experience for the team while providing money for The Lower East Side Girls Club. Thank you to everyone who purchased!
This week, the BirchBots made significant strides in progress toward completing their already-started projects. The mechanical team almost completed the construction of the chassis! They already have everything cut out and are almost finished assembling it! They also began work on their design V1. Over at the media and finance center, we also did major work this week. We met up with Mr. Fisher to finalize the designs for the merch haul coming soon. Grace also spent time working on how we would sell the candy grams and designed stickers for them with Mrs. Toporek. Daphne also spent time on the BirchBots website, updating the blog posts and maintaining it. Finally, the team also got their Slack up and running, organizing everything much better than previously. Overall, we made significant progress this week and are super excited to keep you all updated!
The Birch Bots kicked the week off by starting their work on building the actual robot. The mechanical team in particular went above and beyond. To start off the chassis build, they carefully planned how they’d use the provided metal from the kit of parts and found that some pieces needed to be cut shorter. Once they were sure of their measurements, they cut down sections of the metal with a brand-new miter saw. They also assembled the wheels. The electrical team also made great strides with their work on the electrical board. They discussed how the electrical current would run through it to power the camera and sensors to give remote control to the team. The media team worked hard on revamping the website, fundraising and working on outreach programs. We are so proud of the whole team!
The Birch Bots had a very jam-packed week of planning. On Monday, the team executives met to map out the rest of the season. They decided what would be expected from each group and also set deadlines for each piece. They also debated the chassis build, turning back to examine the pros and cons of last year’s design (pictured here). On Tuesday, the mechanical team further discussed the rules and regulations and brainstormed the general design and what the purpose of each moving part would be. We made big strides on Wednesday, discussing the tank drive and setting specific goals for each project, further simplifying what each member should do. Now Thursday was no slacker either. Two teams met, the finance/media team as well as the programming team. Over in programming, they had their first meeting to discuss the code for the tank drive, as well as explaining what it would accomplish. In finance/media we discussed what the budget was and potential ways to garner sponsors.