Visit the Montgomery College Engineering Website!		News Big Winners! This information was sent in an email to all coaches on 12/05/2005. Congratulations to all 4 of our teams that participated in the Texas BEST regional competition on Saturday: College Park, Humble, St. Agnes, and The Woodlands Homeschoolers. Our hub was well represented at the regional competition. Special recognition goes out to our 2 award-winning teams!! 1st Place (robotics competition): Humble High School 3rd Place (BEST Award): The Woodlands Homeschoolers Our hub is exceptionally proud to have 2 of our teams finish so well against such tough competitors! Well done! Five Star BEST Results This information was sent in an email to all coaches on 11/01/2005. Thanks again to you and your teams for making the 2005 competition so great! The teams get better every year and provide lots of excitement for spectators and volunteers. Several people have commented on the intelligence, creativity, and enthusiasm of the students. Congratulations to everyone! In case you didn’t catch them all, the results from Saturday are below. Of course you know that I can’t send an email without asking for something! If you or your team members have something to share about your BEST experience this year, please go to www.bestinc.org and click on “Tell Us Your Story”. When you share something good about BEST, you help the whole program. Thanks for another great year! I have enjoyed serving as the Five Star BEST hub director, and I appreciate all that you have done to make it so great. The new hub director, David Quarles, will do a first-class job in the coming years. Keep up the outstanding work! Game Reminders This information was sent in an email to all coaches on 10/26/2005. All of your work is almost over, and the fun is about to begin. Before we get there, I have lots of reminders. Please communicate these to your teams! Robot Check-in will be this Friday starting at 6:00 PM and ending at 8:00 PM. All teams MUST check in a robot Friday to compete on Saturday. COME PREPARED TO MAKE CHANGES. If your robot does not meet specifications, you will be asked to fix it. Be ready! After your robot is checked in, it will remain at Kingwood College overnight. Important rule notes - The robot MUST: Fit (unconstrained) in a 2'x2'x2' box. Weigh less than 24 pounds. Use the switch/fuse assembly Have an easily accessible space for the receiver box with velcro. Have a clearly labeled and easily accessible (by the referee) power switch have NO Labels on the Transmitter (controller) Include only legal materials Have a team name clearly visible from 2 sides (if you want our announcer to identify it) All teams are required to submit a notebook. Turn in your notebook to the officials when you check in your robot between 6 PM and 8 PM at the Kingwood College gym. On Saturday morning, starting at 8:15 AM, you will need to check-in. You will pick up your robot and submit a driver list. You can complete the driver list ahead of time and bring it with you to Saturday morning check-in. You can download the form from our web site in the "Downloads" section. The KC Cafe will be open on Saturday from 7:30 AM - 1:00 PM. If you are looking for an easy place to pick up lunch, stop by! We will send FOUR teams to Texas BEST in December, but all other teams should be ready to turn in their return kit items at the end of the day. This means that if you do not advance to regional, you should be ready to COMPLETELY and CAREFULLY disassemble your robot. We will accept the return kit parts at the end of the competition. Remember that the kits are labeled with your school name. Next year you will get the same kit back. Keep it in good shape! Do not leave with your robot! All drivers and spotters will be required to wear safety glasses while on the field. We will provide some, but your are encouraged to bring your own. Our safety goggles are designed for adult heads. If you have team members with smaller heads, you may want some smaller goggles that will not fall off. Charge your batteries well! You are only allowed to bring the provided two robot batteries to the competition! Look for more updates later this week. The most important thing to remember Saturday is to have fun! At that point, all the hard work is over, and you can enjoy the fruits of your labor. Thanks for all your hard work! Notebooks This information was sent in an email to all coaches on 10/25/2005. Remember: ALL TEAMS MUST SUBMIT A NOTEBOOK TO COMPETE! That notebook MUST include the team demographics form. Notebooks will be accepted at machine check-in at the Kingwood College gym on Friday, October 28th, between 6 PM and 8 PM. BEST Award This information was sent in an email to all coaches on 10/25/2005. Below is the schedule for BEST Award presentations to be made this Friday, October 28th. Only the teams listed will be making presentations. If you are planning to participate in the BEST Award, and your team is not shown, notify me IMMEDIATELY. I have randomly assigned presentation times for all BEST Award teams. All presentations will allow 3 minutes for set-up, 8 minutes for the presentation, 2 minutes for judge questions, and 2 minutes to clear the room. THESE TIMES WILL BE STRICTLY ENFORCED. Please be ready to present 15 minutes before your scheduled time shown below: 6:00 PM – Cy-Springs 6:15 PM – College Park 6:30 PM – Woodlands High 6:45 PM – Angelina County Homeschoolers 7:00 PM – Cy-Ridge 7:15 PM – St. Agnes 7:30 PM – Kingwood 7:45 PM – Tomball 8:00 PM – Woodlands Homeschoolers Tables will be placed in the hallway outside the Kingwood College gym on Friday afternoon. You may set up your display Friday evening or Saturday morning. Tables will be assigned on a first-come, first served basis. At "halftime" (approximately noon on Saturday), judges will come to the tables to ask questions about your 6 weeks of participation in the competition. Work hard and do well! BEST Demo Day This information was sent in an email to all coaches on 10/21/2005. A couple of other items you should know: T-shirts will be passed out tomorrow! We will use the tether system at Demo Day! You will be asked to hand over your receiver box and transmitter crystal. Bring your tether box for testing purposes! See you tomorrow! Important Requests This information was sent in an email to all coaches on 10/19/2005. Here are a few other IMPORTANT reminders and requests for this week: By Saturday, please send us your school information. We'll need the school name, team name, robot name, coach names, team web site, team quote, sponsors, school or team logo (GIF or JPG format). PLEASE meet this deadline. Failure to do so may lead to a blank page for your school in the game day program. We want to make sure your school looks good! Remember that NOTEBOOKS ARE REQUIRED. We will collect these on Friday, October 28th. Make sure the demographic form is included! The national BEST organization is interested in all teachers signing up at this web site: http://www.bestinc.org/MVC/Form/teacher. Occasionally (not often at all), they have reason to contact teachers directly. (Otherwise, they must go through those slimy hub directors!) Please help them to help you by signing up! Demo Day Reminders This information was sent in an email to all coaches on 10/19/2005. Demo Day is this Saturday (October 22) from 10 AM – 1 PM in the Montgomery College Commons (Building A). We will have a sign-in sheet for games when you check in beginning at 9:30 AM. THIS IS A REQUIRED EVENT. YOU MUST COMPETE IN AT LEAST ONE GAME WITH A WORKING ROBOT!! You must participate to receive your deposit! Please participate in as many games as you can! Enjoy the fun of using your design! Demo Day Notes: The team with the highest average score will be recognized at our opening ceremonies of the competition at Kingwood College. (You must compete in at least 3 games to be eligible for the recognition.) BEST rules indicate that only a power drill/driver and soldering iron may be used during the competition (Generic Rule #6). This will be STRICTLY ENFORCED. Hand tools are the preferable option for Saturday. Each team will be assigned a small amount of space for your robot repairs. Power is EXTREMELY limited. Make sure your BATTERIES ARE FULLY CHARGED!! If you have any questions, please let me know. We're looking forward to the event Saturday! BEST Award This information was sent in an email to all coaches on 10/18/2005. I hope the robots are coming along well! To prepare for the BEST Award, we will need to know who is participating. Remember that the BEST Award is what this event is all about. We will choose the winner that does a superior job of Boosting Engineering, Science, and Technology through the team notebook, an oral presentation, a table display, and game day spirit and sportsmanship. The winner will be invited to take part in the Texas BEST Award competition at SMU. If you plan to take part in the BEST Award competition, please reply to this email and inform us of your intent to participate. I would like all BEST Award contestants to alert us by the end of this week (Friday, October 21st). Hopefully, you all take part! Demo Day Information This information was sent in an email to all coaches on 10/13/2005. Thanks to all the participants in last weekend's workshop! Hopefully you all learned some helpful information. Remember that Demo Day is just a week and a half away. You are required to have a working robot at that time, so hopefully you are almost there! This is the official schedule for Demo Day: Where: Montgomery College, Building A Commons Date: Saturday, October 22nd Time: 10 AM – 1 PM Each team is required to compete in at least 3 matches, and we encourage you to participate in as many as you like! This is your one opportunity to see the course before game day, so take advantage of the time to practice and have some fun! Some great news: We have just received word from Texas BEST that our hub will advance FOUR teams to the regional competition this year! The top 2 finishers in the robot competition and the top 2 finishers in the BEST Award will advance to compete at SMU on December 2nd! We're glad to hear that more teams will be rewarded for their hard work. Keep working hard, and don’t forget to practice your driving! Confirmed 5-Star BEST Robotics Schedule This information was sent in an email to all coaches on 10/07/2005. Mike and I wanted to confirm the rescheduled event dates with everyone. Workshop: 10/08/05 Demo Day: 10/22/05 Competition: 10/29/05 BEST Workshop This information was sent in an email to all coaches on 10/06/2005. Our BEST Workshop is coming this week! We encourage you visit Montgomery College this Saturday, October 8th, from 9 AM – 12 PM to take advantage of this opportunity to learn about robot construction, astronomy, Hubble, and technical drawing. If you have questions about mechanical construction of your robot, wiring, soldering, or using tools, we will have someone there to answer your questions. We will also have 3 sessions for you to attend: Technical Drawing (learning to draw like an engineer), Astronomy Basics, and Introduction to Hubble. Since your project notebook requires a short paper on the Hubble telescope, this is a great place to learn more about it! Attendees (up to 60) at the technical drawing session will receive a mini-drawing kit. This is the schedule for the day: 9:00 – 12:00 – Robot construction workshop (come and go as you please) (Building A Commons) 9:00 – 10:00 – Technical drawing workshop (Building B, room B205) 10:00 – 11:00 – Astronomy Basics (Building B, room B206) 11:00 – 12:00 – Hubble Presentation (Building B, room B206) New Tentative 5-Star BEST Robotics Schedule This information was sent in an email to all coaches on 09/30/2005. Mike and I sincerely hope that Hurricane Rita did not severely impact any of you. We're all working to get back to the normal routine, but there can be no doubt that with loss of power, rolling blackouts, etc., Rita's influence is still being felt. Almost a week's worth of classes were missed due to the hurricane, so Mike and I are tentatively changing the scheduled event dates, and we wanted to notify you as soon as possible: Workshop: 10/08/05 Demo Day: 10/22/05 Competition: 10/29/05 These dates are tentative at present, but we will work to lock them down early next week. We appreciate your understanding and hope you are all doing well. Robotics Workshop Cancelled This information was sent in an email to all coaches on 09/21/2005. Our BEST Workshop for Saturday is CANCELLED. We will try to make arrangements for another date. I will let you know as soon as I have more information. We have also been asked about potentially delaying the competition one week. That decision will depend on multiple factors and will be something that we consider next week. Updates to our schedule will be communicated via email and our web site’s news page as always. BEST Workshop Saturday This information was sent in an email to all coaches on 09/20/2005. Our BEST Workshop is coming this week! We encourage you visit Montgomery College this Saturday, September 24th, to take advantage of this opportunity to learn about robot construction, astronomy, Hubble, and technical drawing. If you have questions about mechanical construction of your robot, wiring, soldering, or using tools, we will have someone there to answer your questions. We will also have 3 sessions for you to attend: Technical Drawing (learning to draw like an engineer), Astronomy Basics, and Introduction to Hubble. Since your project notebook requires a short paper on the Hubble telescope, this is a great place to learn more about it! Attendees (up to 60) at the technical drawing session will receive a mini-drawing kit. This is the schedule for the day: 1:00 – 4:00 – Robot construction workshop (come and go as you please) (Building A Commons) 1:00 – 2:00 – Technical drawing workshop (Building B, room B205) 2:00 – 3:00 – Astronomy Basics (Building B, room B206) 3:00 – 4:00 – Hubble Presentation (Building B, room B206) As you probably know, Hurricane Rita could possibly make its way here. I will send updates later in the week if plans change. Please check your email! Team Information This information was sent in an email to all coaches on 09/14/2005. Please respond to Mike (Michael.J.Krall@nhmccd.edu) as soon as possible with your team information requested at Kickoff Day. Send us the names of your BEST team members and their t-shirt sizes. Shirts will be ordered on Monday (9/19), so we need this information RIGHT AWAY! Kickoff Day Tomorrow! This information was sent in an email to all coaches on 09/09/2005. Don't forget our big events tomorrow: 8:45 AM – Veteran Coach Meeting (All returning teams must send an adult representative!) 9:30 AM – Kickoff Day For the Kickoff festivities, bring as many coaches and students as you would like to. You will need people to carry materials to your vehicle, and your vehicle should be capable of carrying the kit materials. (A truck or SUV is recommended.) Some folks also like to bring cameras, tape measures, and notebooks to record details of the course since this will be your only chance to see it until Demo Day. Please Remember: Each team must submit a $100 deposit before picking up their kit materials! Please bring a check made out to Montgomery College. Tell Your Story Dear student, teacher, mentor, or parent, BEST Robotics is interested in knowing what your experience was like in this year's competition - we would like to know your story. BEST uses student, teacher, mentor, and parent "testimonials" to publicize the benefits of the program to sponsors and potential sponsors, educators, and governmental agencies. http://www.bestinc.org/MVC/Testimonials/give_testimonial Post-Demo Day Notes (This information was emailed to all school Coaches) Thanks for a great Demo Day! The ideas are all very interesting and even with the low scores, you all put on a great show for the mall crowds. Some notes from the day: On game day, the rules will be strictly obeyed! Robots larger than 2'x2'x2' and adhesive (inside-out duct tape) used to attach to field components will not be allowed! Also, please note that the number of balls on our field was most likely higher than you will see on Game Day. Our field may have imperfections that stray slightly from the plans. Along those lines, the field seemed to shift as the time progressed. We will do our best to prevent that from happening next week, but your robot should be able to compensate if alignments are not perfect. Finally, in case there are questions, these teams qualified today: ASHP, Academy of S&T, Caney Creek, Cy-Ridge, Cy-Springs, Humble, Kingwood, Klein, Knox, McCullough, St. Agnes, The Woodlands High School, Tomball, and the Woodlands Homeschoolers. We'll see these 14 teams on the game floor next week! Demo Day (This information was emailed to all school Coaches) Here are some details and reminders for Demo Day this Saturday, October 16th: Location: Woodlands Mall, "Future Court". We will be in the empty area on the first floor across from JC Penny. The mall does not officially open until 10 AM, but you may enter the "Pine Cone Entrance" near Dillard's starting at 9:30 AM. If you enter there and turn left to head down the main mall walkway, you will see the course not far ahead on your left. Time: The course will be available for competitions and practice at 10:00 AM and will stay open until noon. We will have a sign-in sheet for games when you check-in at 9:30. ** YOU MUST COMPETE IN AT LEAST ONE GAME WITH A WORKING ROBOT!! ** (Working robot means that the robot can score points.) **VERY IMPORTANT** - The mall is an ideal location for our Demo Day event, and they have generously provided space for us rent-free. We are all hoping, as you probably are, that we can make return visits each year. To help with that end, please remember to follow the guidelines we have been given: Remember first and foremost that we are guests. The mall's primary business is sales. We should not do anything that might hurt sales, bother store owners, or annoy customers. WE MUST BEHAVE EXTREMELY WELL!! No banners or signs No music All people and materials must remain at least four feet from each wall (fire regulations). BEST rules indicate that only a power drill/driver and soldering iron may be used during the competition (Generic Rule #6). This will be STRICTLY ENFORCED. Hand tools are the preferable option for Saturday. These rules don't mean we shouldn't show spirit! Let's have fun!!! Notes: Each team will be assigned a small amount of floor space. There will be no tables for your robot. Power is EXTREMELY limited. Make sure your BATTERIES ARE FULLY CHARGED!! Please take the time to check your email this week for updates on Demo Day!! BEST Award and Information (This information was emailed to all school Coaches) Our two big events are coming up quickly. Demo Day is this Saturday at the Woodlands Mall and the Competition is the following Saturday. In order to be prepared for the competition we need some information from each team. Please send the following to Mike Krall at Michael.J.Krall@nhmccd.edu: School name Team name Robot name Coach names Student names Team web site Team quote Sponsors School or team logo (GIF or JPG format) This information is needed by tomorrow, Thursday, at 6 pm. This information will be printed in the game program. The second thing Mike needs to know is who your team administrator is. This should be an adult that is able to enter team demographic information on the best web site. The third thing that is needed is to know which teams are participating for the BEST Award. Remember that the BEST Award is what this event is all about. We will choose the winner that does a superior job of Boosting Engineering, Science, and Technology through the team notebook, a presentation, a table display, and game day spirit and sportsmanship. The winner will be invited to take part in the Texas BEST Award competition at Texas A&M University. The deadline to inform Mike of your intent to participate in BEST is this Friday, October 15th! Kickoff Day Kickoff day is on September 11, 2003 from 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM at the Montgomery College Theater (Building D)
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