2022 – 2023
Year Five
2022-2023 SEASON SCHEDULE
- Sept 9 – 11, 2022 Bethlehem Fair
- Sept 27, 2022 – New Student Open House , 7:00-9:00PM, at our shop at Aces at Chase
- September – December – shop meetings with safety protocals, shop training, CAD, programming, robot design…; fundraising and recruiting events…
- Nov 20, 2002 – Bake Sale fundraiser at LaBonnes, Woodbury
- January 07, 2023 – KICKOFF
- January – March 2023 – robot design, build, test, programming, build and program some more, test, practice, game strategy…
- February – Fairfield County 4-H Public Presentation Day
- Mar 10-12, 2023 – New England District Waterbury Qualifying
EVENT INFORMATION | firstinspires.org - Mar 31-Apr 2, 2023 – NE District Hartford Qualifying
EVENT INFORMATION | firstinspires.org - Apr 6-8, 2023 – NE District Championship
New England Regional Championship | NE FIRST - April 19 – 22, 2023 FIRST Championship – Houston
FIRST Championship, Houston, TX firstchampionship.org - stay tuned, more excitement and learning to come…
Power Station ΙV
Our shop is located in the Innovation Rooms of St. Margaret’s Hall on the beautiful Chase campus
of the ACES at Chase public STEAM magnet school.
565 Chase Pkwy, Waterbury, CT, 06708
We are grateful to Karen Habegger, Principal of Aces at Chase, and her staff, faculty, and students,
for their hospitality and alliance in bringing 4-H and FIRST® opportunities to more area youth.
aces.org/schools-programs/magnet-schools/aces-at-chase/
ACES at Chase is a premier inter-district magnet school for grades 6-8
and a Project Lead the Way School of Distinction
Power Surge 4-H Robotics considers all students in
grades 8 through 12
for membership, from any school or home-schooled.
2022-2023 GAME
An ENERGY inspired challenge!
“FIRST® Robotics Competition teams (ages 14-18) will unlock the power of engineering to transform renewable energy and take on a challenge fully charged to power a better future in CHARGED UPSM presented by Haas.”
“The 2022-2023 season energy theme challenges FIRST teams to reimagine the future of sustainable energy and power their ideas forward.”
BUILD SEASON Week Seven
BUMPERS!
Every robot on the field has to be sporting bumpers because these 125lb robots do interact during competition. Every team needs a blue set and a red set. The robot will wear the color of their alliance in the current match.
The bumpers are built from scratch by the students to fit the particular perimeter of the team’s robot for that season, so they have to be made new every year.
Bumpers have to:
- meet the specifications for robustness,
- show the team number clearly much like any athletic jersey in competition,
- and have to be quick and easy to change out to the other color,
- while ensuring they stay on and in one piece during some rather brutal banging around on the field.
Bumpers are another design/engineering challenge the students need to accomplish in the building of a successful robot.
Congratulations to Gavin and Jackson for a job well done!
Thank you Mentor Dan Biron for your guidance.
Turret
Jack, Stephen and Kanaan work on assembling and calibrating the Turret, guided by Mentor Justin St. Jean and team parent Dan Heasley.
Public Presentation Day
Each year every Power Surge team member enters into a public speaking competition for 4-H. They speak in front of 4-H judges.
It helps to build our skills for talking to FRC judges and for overall better expressing oneself inside and outside team events. Each student just has to talk about any appropriate topic they choose for 5 to 8 minutes. This is primarily a learning experience to improve speaking skills.
In preparation for the event we have a practice schedule posted in the shop in which two students present each meeting day and the mentors give advice on how the presentation can be improved.
Cayden
What is Teamwork?
Katelyn
Musicals from the 21st Century
Julien
Different Types of Machining
Kanaan
Generation of Fighter Jets
Kaleb
Generation of Nascar Cars
Gavin
The Science of Cells
Jack
Voting Rights and the Constitution
Steven
The Importance of Balance in Games
Luther
“Gracious Professionalism”
We are honored to have the signature of Dr. Woodie Flowers (1943-2019). Dr. Flowers was “…Co-Chair of the FIRST Executive Advisory Board, Distinguished Advisor to FIRST, and Pappalardo Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.” (www.firstinspires.org/about/leadership/dr-woodie-flowers)
While he honored us with his signature on our robot, he considered it an honor to wear ours. By the end of each competition day his shirt was covered with the signatures of FIRST students.
Many of our team members over the years met and spoke with Dr. Flowers, and signed his shirts. His welcoming smile and inspiring messages will always be a part of the FIRST experience.
