90 FOLLOWERS!!!

We are up to 90 followers on Twitter!!!! WOOT!! Also, we are making significant progress with everything. This is a darn good thing, considering there are only 19 days left in the season. That's crazy; none of us really know what happened to the first 3 weeks. However, electrical assembly on the final product, and an award has been submitted. Also, another award is nearly ready for submission! We are significantly ahead of where we need to be! Looking forward to the competition! #OMGrobots!!

Frames!!

We're proud to announce that our frame has been sent out for welding. Thank you to McShane Welding for doing this for us!! Several of our members are working hard on drawing the frame in a program called Solidworks. For those of you who are not familiar with this, it is a program for computer-aided drafting, or three dimensional drawing. This is very helpful, and we are very thankful for our members who go through this challenge!! 

Also, thanks for all your help with our social media!! Our Twitter is blowing up, with 67 followers already!! Facebook has another 10 page likes, with a total of 109 likes!! RPM is very excited about all of these followers, as we are one step closer to winning the Media Innovation and Technology award!!

Social Media

One of RPM's major focuses this season is the Media Innovation and Technology award. This award is based on the team's usage of social media to make others aware of us, in addition to how the team uses the most effective means of communication. Although the team will be doing the majority of the work, this is not an adventure we can embark on by ourselves. WE need your help!! "How could I possibly help?" you might be wondering. First, like us on Facebook at Fairview High School FIRST Robotics Team 156: RPM. Then, go to Twitter and follow us at FRC156. Then, go to Google+ and add R.P. Mayhem to your circles. Once this is completed, go to Instagram and follow us at team156rpm. Then, go to youtube and follow our channel. Finally, follow this blog! But you should have already done that... seen as how you are reading this post. Thanks for you help in this matter!

Award submission and Maze completion!

RPM is excited to announce that we have completed an award submission almost a month ahead of time!! WOOT!! We have also completed a project we began during the preseason. What is this project, you might be asking? Well, we built a maze through which a ball will be guided. It is controlled by X-Box controllers, and we are excited to announce that one of our members completed guided the ball through in 2 minutes yesterday evening!! This will be used for outreach events to give younger students the opportunity to experience robotics in a low-key setting. Along with the completion of these things, we are busy working on the website, (check it out. RPM156.com. It's pretty cool.) as well as the business plan and the safety manual.  Also, we are making great progress on our prototype of the robot!! Check back for more information on these events!!!

Finals week

Finals are upon us here at Fairview High School. All of us are busy studying and preparing, and yet RPM hasn't been stopped. One of our new members recently came up with names for the subgroups of our team. The "downstairs team" (i.e the builders) is now referred to as the visions, and the "upstairs team" (i.e the writers, designers, editors,) are now the visionaries. This provides the team with a sense of unity and connectivity. The visions are working on prototyping and have made significant progress in the past few days, despite an evacuation due to the fire alarm going off on the 13th!! The visionaries are continuing to work on award submissions, editing manuals, designing the website, and connecting with social media. Hey, all you Twitter fans! RPM is on Twitter now!! Our username is FRCRPM! And Instagram fans!! We're on Instagram, too!! Follow us! team156rpm!!! Check back for more information and updates!!!

0 degrees!

It is currently 0 degrees and there is a foot of snow on the ground here in Fairview, PA. Did it stop RPM? No! No, not at all!! We are busy, busy, busy. Downstairs, several students are working on finishing a maze that we began during our preseason. It features a control system that allows the maze to be tipped in all four directions, in order to guide a ball through the maze. It will be controlled by joysticks for now, but we are intending on programming it to use x-box controllers. Upon completion, this will be used to improve our outreach and to get younger generations interested! Other students are working on prototyping potential designs for 2015's game, Recycle Rush! Upstairs, everyone is involved in a frenzy of writing, editing, and organizing. Whether it be essays for awards, rewriting our safety manual, rewriting our business plan, organizing our jump drives, computer drawings, or preparing travel permission slips, everyone has their own tasks to complete and everyone is working hard to complete them!!

2015 has arrived...

... And with it, a new update from Team 156: RPM! We are off to a great start this season as we begin the long process of preparing for competition. The last few days have been a frenzy of brainstorming, discussing, considering pros and cons, and voting. All this for what, you might ask? Why for Recycle RUSH, of course!! Recycle RUSH, this year's robotics game, features totes, recycling bins, and pool noodles. Points can be received by stacking the totes on a scoring platform. Also, the recycling bins can then be placed on top of the stacked totes in order to receive an even larger quantity of points. Finally, the pool noodles, representing litter, can be placed into a specific location on the board, called the landfill. However, in order to receive a larger sum of points, teams must be considerate of the environment and place the litter in the recycling bins. Although very differnt than what we are used to, RPM is very excited to compete in this game! Preparations are beginning as the team builds prototypes for two potential designs. We are all about measuring, assembling, testing, scraping, rebuilding, tweaking, and changing in these few weeks!! Along with this, we have begun drafting essays, rebuilding our website, which can be found at rpm156.org, preparing forms, and reviewing safety manuals!! The next 6 weeks will be busy, busy, busy for RPM, but we are ready!!!!