May 2019
TopHear
FIRST!
A quarterly newsletter to keep you informed. Dig it.

Did you miss us?

It's a brand new quarter and a brand new   newsletter! 
And it's more fun than a sock full of butterbeans.  

Look To The Future

The 2018-19 regular competition season has come to an end, but there is a lot of news to share- Town Hall Meetings, New Sponsor, Thank You Message, FRC Workshop Changes, Summer Camps, Events Calendar,  and more- whew !!

So hold on to your Viewmaster-  a nd keep reading for these topics  and more.

And please pass this newsletter on to teams, parents and students.
(a web link is at the top of this email- the "click here")
To subscribe to the newsletter, just fill out this form.

We Need Your Help: Town Hall Meetings

FIRST Chesapeake would like to organize (up to) four Town Hall meetings in our District to share information, answer any questions that you may have, and hear your thoughts about how we can do better.

Here is where we need your help. We would like to have these Town Halls in areas where teams and volunteers have expressed the most need. We would also like to invite a local team to host the meeting, if at all possible. Please take a moment to go to this link and fill out a quick survey regarding dates and locations by May 23rd. 

NOTE: This survey is available to all teams and volunteers, not just teams that may be able to host. Once we receive your input, we will select the areas with the most responses and announce meeting dates and locations.
FIRST Championship Detroit
We are proud of all the FIRST Chesapeake district teams that traveled to Detroit in April for the FIRST Championship event.

  • FTC Team
    1629- FIRST Ch Detroit
    Team 1629
    15167 - Robo Troopers, Woodbridge, Va.
  • FTC Team 11112 - RoboLords, Ashburn, Va.
  • FTC Team 8788 - Hexadecimal, Suffolk, Va.
  • FTC Team 14607 - Robot Uprising, Alexandria, Va.
  • FTC Team 4634 - FROGbots, Gainesville, Va.
  • FTC Team 9794 - Wizard.exe, Rockville, Md.
  • FTC Team 3595 - Schrödinger's Hat, Alexandria, Va.
  • FTC Team 4924 - Tuxedo Pandas, Christiansburg, Va.
  • FTC Team 6010 - Thunderstone, Alexandria, Va.
  • FRC Team 449 - The Blair Robot Project - Montgomery Blair HS, Silver Spring, Md.
  • FRC Team 836 - The RoboBees - family/community team, Hollywood, Md.
  • FRC Team 1629 - Garrett Coalition - Northern & Southern Garrett High Schools, Accident, Md.
  • FRC Team 2534 - Lumberjack Robotics - Boys' Latin School of Maryland, Baltimore, Md.
  • FRC Team 4541 - CAV-ineers - Archbishop Spalding HS, Severn, Md.
  • FRC Team 7886 - Cadet Robotics - Frederick HS, Frederick, Md.
  • FRC Team 346 - RoboHawks - Lloyd C. Bird HS, Chesterfield County, Va.
  • FRC Team 384 - Sparky 384 - J.R. Tucker HS, Henrico County, Va.
  • FRC Team 401 - Copperhead Robotics - Montgomery County Public Schools, Christiansburg, Va.
  • FRC Team 614 - Night Hawks - Hayfield Secondary School, Alexandria, Va.
  • FRC Team 619 - Cavalier Robotics - Charlottesville-Albemarle Robotics, Charlottesville, Va.
  • FRC Team 977 - Cometbots - Halifax County HS, South Boston, Va.
  • FRC Team 1086 - Blue Cheese - Deep Run HS, Henrico County, Va.
  • FRC Team 1262 - the STAGS - New College Institute, Martinsville, Va.
  • FRC Team 1418 - Vae Victis - George Mason HS, Falls Church, Va.
  • FRC Team 1610 - Blackwater Robotics - Franklin HS, Franklin, Va.
  • FRC Team 1885 - ILITE Robotics - Battlefield HS, Haymarket, Va.
  • FRC Team 2998 - VikingBots - Thomas Jefferson HS, Richmond, Va.
  • FRC Team 4472 - SuperNova - Community team, Woodbridge, VA
  • FRC Team 5243 - Aegis Robotics - Centreville HS, Clifton, Va.
  • FRC Team 5587 - Titan Robotics - T.C. Williams HS, Alexandria, Va.
  • FRC Team 5724 - Spartan Robotics - Salem HS, Salem, Va.
  • FRC Team 6802 - Mean Caimans - Cedar Bluff, Va.

Accomplishments (we apologize if we missed any)
  • FRC 1629 GaCo- Chairman's Award finalist
  • FRC 346 Robohawks and FRC 2534 Lumberjacks were on the winning Tesla division alliance, and 346 was alliance captain. The alliance placed 4th in the Einstein playoffs.
  • FTC team 4924 Tuxedo Pandas- Motivate Award Finalist

Want to see more photos? Click here for more shots from Detroit. 

Robolords- FIRST Ch Detroit
Robolords with Kristin Clemons, Dir of Programs
  
Detroit
Team 401 with a double climb
New Sponsor UPS
UPS
Thank you to  FIRST Chesapeake's newest sponsor  UPS for their support  and  donation of a forklift.

"Supporting the communities in which we work and live is woven into the UPS culture. UPS is on pace to reach its 2014 goal of contributing 20 million UPS employee volunteer hours by the end of 2020. In 2017, UPS employees completed a record 2.9 million hours of volunteer service, providing more than $80 million in economic impact. 
UPS Freight is proud to support FIRST Chesapeake."
Thank you to Volunteers
Thank you to all the volunteers that helped to make this season an out-of-this-world success!  We had 1,250 people donate over 35,000 hours of their time to the young people of DC, MD, and VA. 

It was great to see so many familiar faces returning to work at FIRST Tech Challenge in VA and FIRST Chesapeake District FIRST Robotics competition events. We were also happy to welcome so many new people to our ranks, and we hope to see you again next year.  

We truly could not hold these competitions without the commitment and support of our amazing and hardworking volunteers. 

FIRST Chesapeake Community Engagement and Volunteer Outreach Coordinator

hand writing
Did you volunteer for a 2019 FIRST Robotics Competition event? Did you share your thoughts in the volunteer survey form, to help improve the volunteer experience?

It's not too late- just click here for the quick and easy form. 
Thanks in advance!
Upcoming Events Calendar
Here are some upcoming FIRST and STEM-related events. Click through the links  for more information or visit the 
FIRST 
for even more event listings.
  • Jun 1- FRC MRA Mentor Seminar (USRA- Columbia, MD)
  • Sep 7- FTC Kickoff (TBD)
  • Sep 21- FTC Workshops (Richmond, VA and NoVA)
  • Sep 21- FRC Battle O' Baltimore off-season event (McDonogh School- Owings Mills, MD)
  • Oct 5- FRC Blue Ridge Brawl off-season event (Salem High School- Salem, VA)
  • Oct 26- IROC off-season event (Battlefield High School- Haymarket, VA)
  • Nov 2- Rumble in the Roads off-season event (Heritage High School- Newport News, VA)

Learn more about volunteering with FIRST Chesapeake here.
STEM Summer Camps
Here is a list of STEM-based summer camps in DC, MD and VA, as submitted by readers. We are constantly adding to it, so check back often.

FIRST Chesapeake is providing this list as a courtesy and it does not constitute an endorsement of any particular program.  This is also not an exhaustive list.

If you have a camp you'd like listed, please fill out this form
Changes to FRC Workshops for 2019-20 Season
There are some exciting changes for the FRC 2019-20 season workshops. 
  • We will be utilizing Twitch as an online format so teams from throughout the district can participate regardless of their physical location. 
  • Workshops will be more in-depth than in the past-  30-60 minutes in length, scheduled weekly throughout the fall, with a different subject for each scheduled date. 
Do you have a resource that would help the community? What does your team do well?Teams and mentors may submit presentation topics at: https://www.firstchesapeake.org/submit-workshop

Dates/times will be published as soon as we have a full slate of presenters lined up.

 Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook View on Instagram

Keep up with all things FTC and FRC by liking and or following FIRST Chesapeake on all our social media accounts! 

Introducing the 2019-2020 Season Theme


 is setting out to inspire citizens of the galaxy to work together, strengthening and protecting the Force that binds us and creating a place where collaboration and collective wisdom can elevate new ideas and foster growth. 


       
Use Amazonsmile and choose FIRST Chesapeake DBA
 VirginiaFIRST  as your charity!


Quick Links:   Website   Donate   Volunteer   
    Science Matters      YouTube