Kinetic Knights FIRST® Team 781

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Fundraising for Championships

Kinetic Knights BBQ PosterAs you may have heard, we traveled to compete at the Queen City Regional recently and we returned victorious! This qualified for World Championships, and we definitely plan on attending! That means we have started gathering our tools, materials, spirit, and, of course, the team itself. However, that also means that we need to gather funds to help take us there! We need your help, and we have the perfect ways that you can show your support!

1. Penny War

During the entire Spirit Week at KDSS, our team can be found in the T-in-the-Hall. We will be coordinating the Penny War that will take place. You must be wondering what a penny war is, right? Well, That's what we're going to explain to you!

A Penny War is a game that involves getting the most points, but also sabotaging other groups (other grades in this case) to decrease their points. Here's how it works: Every penny your put into your grade's jar will earn you one point, but every other coin (nickels, dimes, quarters, loonies, and toonies) that is in your jar will deplete the amount of points you have by the monetary value of that coin, equivalent to pennies. Bills are also huge point destroyers... basically anything that is not a penny will decrease points.

For example, if you have 500 pennies in your jar, you have 500 points. If someone in another grade decides they want to pull your grade's score down, they will put, for instance, a loonie in your jar. This will take 100 points away from your jar because a loonie's value is equivalent to 100 pennies. Therefore, you will then be at 400 points. Let's say, for example, that the person that sabotaged your grade's jar is in the grade that has 750 points, and you want revenge! If you put a $5 bill in their grade's jar, they will be back at 250 points because $5 is equivalent to 500 pennies.

There will be five jars:
Grade 9
Grade 10
Grade 11
Grade 12 / 5th year students
Teachers and Staff

This is a great way for the school to have a little bit of friendly competition, while also supporting our trip to the World Championships. So, get your grade together and we'll see who comes out on top!

By the way, we forgot to mention that the winning grade will not only get points for the spirit cup, but the entire grade will get CUPCAKES! Besides, who doesn't want cupcakes?

2. Photo Booth at the School Dance

KDSS will be having its final dance of the year on Thursday, April 19, 2012 and it's going to be lots of fun! You can now showcase yourself and your friends with the Kinetic Knights Photo Booth! We will be taking photos for a small fee and all you have to do is smile! So show up at the dance! Maybe a memory of a high school dance will stay with you forever. Who knows?

3. BBQ at the Practice Field

This year, Gordon Pharmasave has generously offered to hold a BBQ Lunch with us at our practice field. The event details are as such:

385 Queen Street
Kincardine, ON
Saturday, April 21, 2012

From 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM

It will cost:

$3.00 for a Burger and Drink
$4.00 for a Cheeseburger and Drink

So come out for lunch this Saturday and support our trip to the World Championships! Thanks for all your enthusiasm and support over the season so far! We are really lucky to have a community like you!

 

Winners of the Queen City Regional!

After successfully competing at three regional competitions, Team 781 from Kincardine District Secondary School (KDSS) is on its way once again to the FIRST World Championship!

The Kinetic Knights FIRST Robotics Team spent our Easter weekend competing at the inaugural Queen City Regional in Cincinnati, Ohio, where we played against 56 other FIRST Robotics teams from Canada, Brazil and the U.S.A.

In a basketball themed game with robots scoring baskets and balancing on a seesaw style bridge, we finished the qualification matches in the 21st seed. However, during selections, the Kinetic Knights were invited to join the 8th ranked alliance, consisting of Team 45, The Techno Kats and Team 3940, The Cyber Tooth, both from Kokomo Indiana. Although our alliance was the underdog throughout the elimination matches, the Knights, Kats, and Cyber Tooths made it to the finals, thanks to our alliance's ability to balance three robots on the bridge.

The first match of the finals finished with our alliance earning the highest scoring match of the competition, 91-83. However, the competition consisting of Teams 48, 1038, and 3193 would not give up that easily, keeping the second match of the finals at a tight score. It wasn't until the concluding seconds when Kinetic Knights' human player, Luke Splettstoesser, scored a basket from across the field to win the match and competition, 64-62.

Team 781 didn't just come home with the regional champion title but also our 5th regional website award. Winning this regional secures a spot for us at the upcoming FIRST World Championship in St. Louis, MO, where we finished second last year.

We are thrilled to be attending the FRC Championship Event for the second year in a row! We look forward to meeting all our fellow friends, as well as some new faces in hopes of having an even better time! We invite you to join us, in person or online to watch the most exciting event in the FIRST world!

So, as we say hello to yet another year of World Championships, we leave you with one message...

BALL SO HARD!

 

Queen City

We're in Cincinnati, at the inaugural Queen City Regional FIRST FRC robotics competition.

Watch us on-line NOW!

 

Waterloo Regional : After the Event

Last weekend, the Kinetic Knights traveled to to the University of Waterloo for another competition, following GTR East. It was a great weekend for the team, and a great weekend for all teams.

We started the competition with a pretty good set of qualifying matches which left us in 8th place at the beginning of the alliance selections. However, two teams with a higher ranking were chosen by two other higher ranked teams, leaving us as the 6th alliance captain. We chose FIRST Teams 288 (RoboDawgs) and 2804 (K-Botics) to shoot hoops with us. After a long and successful run, we were knocked out in the semi-finals by just one point!

The Kinetic Knights didn't just compete on the field, though. We made our Chairman's submission at the regional, but were defeated by a very deserving victory by FIRST Team 2056 (OP Robotics). Congratulations!

Although we didn't win on the field, we didn't go home empty-handed. We were the winners of the Innovation in Control award. Most importantly, though, one of our team members, Janelle Taylor, was the recipient of the Dean's List Finalist award for her leadership and enthusiasm towards our team and FIRST. Janelle's story will now go on to compete and will give her the chance to be one of the 10 winners at the Championship event in St. Louis, Missouri. We could not have been more proud of one of our own team members! Way to go, Janelle!

Even though we didn't win this time, all hope is not yet lost. We will be going down south to the USA to compete and represent the Great White North at the Queen City Regional for one more shot at sealing our spot at the World Championships. Good luck to all teams, and we hope to see you there!

 

Waterloo Regional

We're at the University of Waterloo.

Watch us on-line NOW!

 
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Robo Knight Elementary School Dance
Fri 19:00PM - 22:00PM