Parent's Night Out / Minecraft Camp! (Now accepting 1st grade)

Camp and Parent's Night Out

What:          Minecraft Camp / Parent's Night Out
Who:           Available to kids in grades 1st - 8th
When:         Friday, December 4th from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm
Where:        3162 Johnson Ferry Road, Suite 430 Marietta, GA 30062
Hosted By:  East Cobb Robotics Team

Parents, it’s your chance to go out and have some fun or do some Holiday shopping while your kids learn new ways to use Minecraft from East Cobb Robotics Students. The night will be fun filled and your child can get their Minecraft questions answered while playing with other kids.

IMPORTANT Tech Notes: 
For a successful evening, each child needs to:

• Have their own computer-based Minecraft account and know how to log in.
• Bring their own LAPTOP with Minecraft already installed.
• All machines must run Windows, iOS or Linux and have Java installed.    
• No Kindles, iPads, iPhones, or Chromebooks

Cost is $30 per child and includes drinks, snacks, and pizza for dinner. Children must be in grades 1-8.

To register, click on the “Minecraft Camp sign-up” tab!

Questions? Please email info@EastCobbRobotics.org

Can't make it this time, but want to know when our next camp is? Fill out our Notify Me form.


Refunds require a 24 hour cancellation notice. All proceeds go toward East Cobb Robotics' mission of promoting STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics).

Planes, Drones, Robots –Oh My!

October was a busy month for East Cobb Robotics.  We visited the Cobb County Radio Control Modeler’s Club in Acworth.

Photo of the team and CCRC members taken by their drone!

CCRC members showcased entry-level radio control airplanes, drones, helicopters and a plane that runs on jet fuel.  (Due to the size of the runway this plane was unable to fly –it is very loud!)  During the demo flights our driver’s fingers were itching to get their hands on the controls!  We are thankful to say there were no crashes or in flight collisions this was due to teaming up with an experienced pilot and strictly following their instruction

A key to successful radio control operation is the controls function logically while the plane is flying away from you however, while flying toward you everything is reversed.  The left lever is now controlling the right flap, etc.  Team members learned about scale, various materials used in exterior construction, electrical systems, thrust, lift, propulsion and what a fun hobby this can be!

It’s no surprise that the careers of our hosts ranged from technology to aeronautical engineering and of course – a pilot!  We really appreciate the time they took with our team and the guidance they provided.

GRITS recap

On Saturday at GRITS (our pre-season robotics competition) the rookie members learned how a competition operates and got to experience some of the excitement and action involved. Veteran team members got to see another version of the GRITS competition and were also able to relive the excitement and action of competition. We had lots of fun, showed great spirit (more about that later), and represented East Cobb Robotics well in front of other students, the public and Georgia FIRST leadership.




Students also learned great problem solving skills, how to work as a team and how to handle challenges that arose. Through the talents of the All-Rookie Drive Team and build, electrical and programming team members working together, we wound up coming in 8th place out of 25.

Our t-shirt cannon shot off shirts to the crowd and had a lot of interest from the public as well as other teams. We had fun interacting with the Dodgen FTC team, The Afterburners, who were there demonstrating their robot, and shared information about the next level of FIRST (FRC) with them as well as some pizza.

We also got to share information about STEM with the public and had more than a few people interested in our competition robot, King Tote, our t-shirt cannon and the FIRST Progression of Programs.

While we encountered some challenges during the robot portion of the competition, we had NO trouble with spirit. We impressed the judges with our awesome dance moves and infectious team spirit and brought home the GRITS 2015 Spirit Award! This is our second GRITS trophy, and it's a beautiful addition to our collection.

Thanks to everyone who came out and cheered on ALL the participants at GRITS and for helping to encourage a love of STEM in the community.

GRITS (an off-season robotics competition!)

Teams from all over Georgia and beyond are coming together in Marietta, GA. Come watch robots compete in the 2015 FIRST Robotics Competition game – Recycle Rush!  The 120lb robots compete in 3 team alliances and score by stacking totes and garbage cans on top of each other to score points.

East Cobb Robotics will be one of 28 teams participating in an off-season competition named GRITS: the Georgia Robotics Invitational Tournament and Showcase on Saturday, October 10.

FTC, FLL and robotics for all grades will be showcased. The event is FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. 

The link to the official Georgia FIRST page is HERE

Date: Saturday, October 15, 2015
Time: See schedule below
Location: Walton High School, 1590 Bill Murdock Rd, Marietta, GA 30062

8:30 AM Opening Ceremonies
9:00 AM‐ 12:00 PM Qualifying Rounds
12:00 PM ‐ 01:30 PM Break for lunch
1:30 PM – 03:30 PM Qualifying Rounds resume
03:30 PM – 04:00 PM Short break and Alliance Picks
04:00 PM – 05:00 PM Semi‐ Finals and Final Match
05:15 PM Awards

HURRY! Registration Closes Friday for Minecraft Camp!

The East Cobb Robotics Team is hosting a MINECRAFT CAMP! 

We'll be helping students explore different aspects of Minecraft, including Redstone...  

 

Who:       Students, grades 3rd - 8th

What:      Minecraft camp!

Where:    3162 Johnson Ferry Road, Suite 430 Marietta, GA 30062

When:      Saturday, October 3rd, 2015

9am-12pm for grades 3-5

2pm-5pm for grades 6-8

In this camp, kids will learn new ways to use Minecraft from our high-school age robotics team members! Your child can finally get their Minecraft questions answered while playing with other kids.

Each child needs to bring their own laptop with Minecraft already installed.

Each child needs to have their own Minecraft account and know how to login.

Cost is $25 per child.

Space is limited to 30 children for each session so sign up soon!

Refunds require a 24 hour cancellation notice. All proceeds go toward East Cobb Robotics' mission of promoting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).

Click on the “Minecraft Camp sign-up” tab up above!

Can't come to this event but want to know when our next session is? 

Sign up on this Notify Me List.

2015 East Cobber Parade and Festival!

The 20th Annual East Cobber Parade and Festival was a huge success all the way around. The weather held out: it wasn't too hot or too cold, and although the wind kicked up a little, it wasn't a problem.  All the team members worked together beautifully. We had compliment after compliment from the community and other businesses telling us how impressed they were with our students - they were polite, well mannered, professional and so SMART! Most people were blown away by seeing what the kids had built and accomplished. Many told us that they wish that they had this opportunity when they were in school. Even more told us (and the students) to stick with it, as this program would be a great benefit to them now, for college, and for future jobs.

We outreached to hundreds of people through the parade and afterwards at the festival, and had a lot of interest in our program. The t-shirt/stress ball cannon was a big hit during the parade and at the festival where we had a shoot-off with the Walton team.

 During the Festival itself, we promoted GRITS and our upcoming Minecraft Camp which had many kids really, really (really) excited.

We also featured a STEM activity with bubbles - EVERYONE enjoyed playing with the bubbles, and we snuck some science in there on the sly (elasticity, surface tension, chemistry, light, and even geometry) so that kids could experience the fact that science and math are everywhere, and that it's FUN.

More fun was had by kids driving our outreach robot. We had all ages and sizes of kids driving the robot (and some parents got in on the action too!). After a quick explanation on how to drive, they took turns driving it around the test site. We had a pretty long line going at one point.

Drivers were rewarded with a really cute "Certified Robot Driver" sticker and came away with a more personal man/machine connection and saw that robots are fun and not scary or "something out of my league".




It was especially gratifying to see all the girls who stepped up to take the controls. From the little, little ones, to cheerleaders in ponytails and bows, all the girls who drove the robot came away with a sense of accomplishment. What a great feeling to know that our team may have helped inspire some of them to pursue careers in STEM.

That's what yesterday was all about... Inspiring the community and kids about STEM, robotics and our team. We had fun getting the word out there through our robots, our activities and our team members.

Getting Ready for the East Cobber Parade

Tonight we had 8 students training on the t-shirt cannon. Isn't it beautiful! ;)

To see it first hand, you'll need to come to the East Cobber Parade and Festival this Saturday, 9/12. We're right up front and we'll be shooting off t-shirts for the East Cobber Magazine in addition to our very own purple stress balls.

Come by and watch the parade, have the chance to catch a t-shirt or ball, and then stop by the festival and do a fun STEM activity, and drive a robot.

Rain or shine! More info on the parade can be found at the East Cobber's website.