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Dakota Ridge High School's FRC team has competed at the Denver Regional

every year since the 2006 season.

Technology Education teacher Bill Schmidt recognized the value that FIRST would bring to his students when he formed the team in 2005. The things students can learn from FIRST just don't fit well into a high school class schedule. As a co-curricular activity, run after school and on weekends, FIRST complements the learning students get in class with hands-on opportunities to learn real-world skills. FRC robots are powers by 12 volts marine batteries, which makes the makes their electrical systems very similar to that in cars. At 120+ pounds, FRC robots are big and powerful enough that safety has to be considered during design, fabrication, and testing. Each robot typically contains over $4000 dollar of parts and materials causing robot design to consider cost, availability, manufacturability, maintainability. These are concepts that just don't come into play in the typical high school robotics course which typically are using toy robot kits to teach basic mechanics and programming. For any teacher forming or continuing a team, FRC involves a lot of extra hours after school. Our school district does not financially support school robotics teams and they don't have a mechanism for paying teachers to coach them. Unlike many of our neighboring high schools, DRHS has keep our team active for nearly 20 years.

Team Purpose: To provide the opportunity of FRC to all interested students.

FRC is the best simulation of a real world engineering project available to high school students. This experience is an excellent complement to our school's Engineering Program. FRC provides students with experience, knowledge, and skills that prepare them for whatever STEM career they choose. By making engineering exciting, FIRST hope to encourage more children to accept the challenge of working towards achieving a successful successful and rewarding technical career.

Team Goals:

Grow our Team:

A. 40 Student Members

B. 10 Mentors

C. 6 Corporate Sponsors

D. $20,000 Annual Budget

E. 4 Robotics Teams Mentored

2. Attending 2 Regional Competitions each year.

A. We will always attend our local Colorado Regional Competition. (We consider this to be a minium requirement)

B. The second regional competition will be in a neighboring state.

C. Contingencies planned for attending World Championship. (We are reserving $5000 for registration)

3. Purposefully Plan to Win.

A. Develop strategies and designs that would allow us to rank 20th or above.

B. Communicate well with other teams to improve our chances of being selected by an alliance.

B. Make a good attempt at winning at least one award each year.

C. Make an Inspiration Award submission each year. (2024 achieved)

Student Sign-Up - Complete this form to show interest in joining the team.

Student Sign-Up

Donations - To generate more commitment from families and to cover cost of team meals, transportation, t-shirts, team awards & certificates, banquet, etc.

Suggested amount per family $100.00 (Link to School Donation Page)

Donations up to $499 are accepted on the district's website.

Instructions: Click on this Link

Select: "Donate" - Donate to School or Program

Select: Dakota Ridge High from the pull-down list

Find: "Robotics" and enter donation amount in the right column

Select: "View Cart" and "Proceed to Checkout"

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