Team 1011
CRUSH
Creating Robots Under Severe Heat
Briefly describe the impact of the FIRST program on team participants.
Through FIRST we have been provided a roadmap of success. We have learned new & valuable
skills, participated in community service building character and integrity, learned what it means to be
a gracious professional, experienced positive reinforcement & validation with professionally
conducted competitive events, worked side by side with dedicated professionals in high-tech fields,
been given unique learning experiences & offered many educational & financial opportunities for
higher education.
Examples of role model characteristics for other teams to emulate.
Extraordinary school support resulting in high levels of staff participation; Ability to generate
financial support; Ability to prove Public Relations value to sponsors; Community Service: Lego
League Mentoring, Support of Arizona FRC, Rookie Team Mentoring; Excellent Mentor Talent Pool
from many engineering specialties; Excellent Student & Parent Participation & Support; High
Expectations for Students within FIRST Program with emphasis on character building.
Describe the impact of the FIRST program on your team and community.
FIRST gave us with a roadmap to start & sustain a curriculum based team within our school &
community. It has given us a way to validate our process & receive recognition for our work.
Through FIRST, we have also begun to make an impact in our community by presenting FIRST &
robotics as a great way to engage students in a life changing, life molding experience taking
advantage of community events & media to forward the idea that math, science and technology are
fun and worthwhile endeavors.
Team’s innovative methods to spread the FIRST message.
We created an outreach team that uses a skit & mock game emphasizing robotics trivia. With our
robot “ADIL” we give presentations in our community including UofA Engineering Ambassador’s Club
& Tucson Urban League’s Intel Clubhouse. We are available year round to give demos &
presentations showcasing FIRST & High School Robotics! Plus, we sponsored ROBOLYMPICS in
Tucson that included FIRST workshops & games bringing together resources & potential teams
while introducing FIRST to our community.
Describe the strength of your partnerships. (500 characters)
We work hard to forge solid partnerships between us & school, mentors, sponsors & community. We
are the result of SSA’s rigorous courses giving practical applications in math & science. We have
highly skilled mentors across several engineering & technical fields working with students imparting
their skills & knowledge. We work hard to showcase our sponsors including them in community &
media events. We have a great partnership with our community giving demos & presentations.
Team’s communication methods and results.
Team Communications:
1. Team Meetings
2. Intra-team Email lists for “All”, “Core”, “Build” and “Code”.
3. Inter-team Email: Tucson-FIRST email list for Tucson teams.
4. Collaborative Editing Repository (CVS).
5. Web Presence: crush1011.org includes “public information” for & “team information.”
6. Shared Software Repository: Software development is done with a publicly accessible shared
software repository (sourceforge.net).
7. Student and Mentor Directory.
Other matters of interest to the FIRST judges.
This year we have 3 graduating seniors. They will be leaving us becoming valued FIRST mentors &
will continue to enjoy the relationship with CRUSH & FIRST. As a direct result of their participation in
FIRST, one has been offered $60,000+ in scholarships directly attributable to FIRST! When she
joined, she wanted to be a social worker, now she has accepted a Raytheon Scholar’s position that
places her on a path in engineering! She is one of the best examples of the result of this program.
ESSAY
Amazing Partnerships Make Remarkable Teams!
Team 1011 is a four-year-old team from Tucson. CRUSH was created jointly by the UofA & Sonoran
Science Academy(SSA). As we enter our fourth year, we have decided to make this our standout
year.
As we have matured, we have strengthened our partnerships. We created a sustainable team model
by forging partnerships with school, mentors, sponsors & community. We have sown seeds of FIRST
in our community by working with the FIRST Arizona Planning Committee(APC), NASA & media to
find, facilitate & foster new teams while identifying & creating professional associations with high-
tech companies. We are dedicated to strengthening our partnership with FIRST by spreading the
message that math, science & technology are fun & worthwhile endeavors. “We Build More than
Robots!”
Our best partnership is with our school. SSA is a public school that has been designated by the ADE
as “EXCELLING.” SSA is our foremost supporter. Team 1011 is a fully-funded & chartered,
prestigious, curriculum-based team. Students receive credit for participation in our year-round
program. Through the collaboration of mentors & SSA, a robotics curriculum is being developed that
SSA hopes to implement fall 2006. We participate in open houses & recruiting events talking about
the awesome opportunity through SSA with FIRST robotics. We give presentations at schools, clubs,
organizations & companies. Plus, CRUSH supports the K-12 robotics program at SSA by providing
coaching & mentoring for SSA Lego Leagues & VEX while overseeing a robotics summer camp. We
are a highly visible example of what the partnering of extraordinary students, motivated teachers,
staff & dedicated professional mentors can achieve. We successfully raise about 50% of our
funding, but it is not a major focus of our team as SSA pledges $40,000 to our budget each year!
The partnership between SSA & CRUSH 1011 is strong & successful!
CRUSH has also been successful in building extraordinary partnerships with our mentors. This
partnership is our greatest strength! Last year, our mentor William Bennett won the Woodie Flowers
Award. Although he is an extraordinary mentor, he is not the only amazing mentor. Currently we
have eight fully invested mentors with a variety of specialties including mechanical, computer,
optical, electronic & electrical engineering, programming & Information Technology. Our mentors
come from amazing companies including IBM, Raytheon, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, UofA & ITT-
Technical Institute (ITT). Many of our mentors are available year round contributing 28+ hours a
month during our “off season” & 40+ hours a week during build season. Our mentors work hard
teaching students giving them practical experience in many areas.
We believe in “you watch, I do, then, you do, I watch.” Before students leave our program, they gain
experience in tools & tooling, fabrication, welding, electronics, CAD & programming. They will fully
participate & contribute in the design process getting a chance to experience team work & project
management. Working beside mentors provides students with insight about careers & offers real
world applications of classroom principles leaving a lasting impression. The majority of our students
choose to continue their educational & career paths in technology because of this partnership! Role
models & mentors are powerful, positive influences on students. The CRUSH-mentor partnership is
thriving at Team 1011!
Not only are we fortunate with our school & mentors, we include sponsors on our list of blossoming
partnerships! CRUSH 1011 has received donations, talented mentor pools, equipment donations,
shop contributions & Arizona Tax Credit matching funds from many companies including IBM,
Raytheon, Honeywell, ITT & NASA! This year, our major top-level sponsors are SSA, ITT, NASA &
IBM. In exchange for their contributions, we work hard for them attending special events giving
demonstrations whenever asked including a presentation for ITT where our team was able to meet &
talk to Congressman Kolbe about CRUSH & FIRST making a positive impression that will serve
FIRST well. Additionally, we provide our sponsors with tables & time at our events including this year’
s Robolympics. We proudly display their logos on team uniforms, materials and websites.
Companies that decide to sponsor CRUSH are truly partners in our continued success just as we
contribute wherever possible to their continued success.
Through collaboration with APC & NASA, we organized FIRST Robolympics in Tucson in September.
Approximately 150 high school teachers throughout Tucson were invited. The event was publicized
& attracted about 150 spectators from our community receiving media attention including newspaper
& television coverage. The event featured recruiters from 3 colleges, FIRST workshops & several
FIRST teams from Phoenix competed in the games. From this collaboration, two new teams were
started in Tucson. We look forward to Robolympics II. We believe it will be more successful!
Our last successful partnership is between CRUSH (in association with FIRST) & our community.
Last year we started an outreach program designed at spreading the idea that math, science &
technology are not only vital in education but also fun and exciting by developing a skit & game. It
featured “ADIL” our 2005 robot. Adil & our students are fantastic ambassadors for FIRST, SSA &
CRUSH! This is a large part what our team does when it is not building robots! So far, we have
visited UofA Engineering Ambassadors, Tucson Urban League, Intel Community Clubhouse,
Raybots at Raytheon, IBM Take Your Child to Work, ITT, TERRA (Tucson Experimental Radio &
Robotics Association), Home Depot & other partners throughout Tucson spreading this message.
Our next project is creating a traveling exhibit fort the Tucson’s Children’s Museum. We have
already begun preliminary discussions & received approval! We hope to display past robots, share
interesting facts & educate Tucsonan’s about FLL, VEX & FRC with an interactive exhibit. We will
continue to visit schools & community organizations promoting FIRST while stressing that math,
science & technology are fun & worthwhile endeavors inspiring young minds to participate.
We now mentor 2 rookie teams in Tucson. Our relationship began in May of 2005. We opened
dialogues with both schools introducing them to FIRST & high school robotics. In September,
CRUSH sponsored Robolympics, & in a combined effort with Pam Hill of the APC, Cecilia Cordova of
NASA-Dreyden & the NASA Space Grant Consortium, we recruited Vail HS & Flowing Wells HS!
Through persistence & great collaboration, our attempt to start teams in Tucson succeed tripling
FIRST’s impact in the community!
We continue to support our rookies in many ways including demonstrations, mentor support, pooled
ordering & access to our shop & meetings. We started “Tucson FIRST Email List” that provides Inter-
team communication to individuals & four high schools (Teams 1011, 1726, 1798 & 1828) sending
regular emails charting our progress providing them with a examples of a well-organized build
season. We also keep them informed about deadlines & important tips making their build season
more manageable. These emails are generated to everyone on the Tucson First List. Also, we
attended Kickoff with Flowing Wells HS & provided them with transportation & overnight
accommodations at our sister school in Phoenix bringing together students allowing them to form
great alliances! We continue to reach out! We are truly invested in their success hoping they
continue to flourish in the FIRST program!
This year we adopted a service project for our team by sponsoring the Southern Arizona Regional
Science & Engineering Fair (SARSEF). SSA/CRUSH has contributed to the event & we created a
special award to help promote robotics technology & the spirit of FIRST. It is “SSA CRUSH 1011
FIRST Robotics: Achievement in Robotics Related Engineering or Technology.” The award’s prize is
$100.00! We are proud of this project & hope it will inspire students to submit robotics related
projects! This project supports our motto by giving us the opportunity to raise funds to help support
this community program. At CRUSH, “We Build More than Robots!” Our partnership with our
community is vibrant & effective & continues to inspire our members.
For the first time, CRUSH is graduating three seniors that have greatly benefited from our
partnerships! They will take a huge legacy from FIRST & CRUSH including $60,000+ in scholarship
offers directly attributable to FIRST! They are expecting even more offers! All three are planning on
continuing their education in science and engineering! Our amazing partnerships have resulted in
remarkable success stories for our students. They will continue their partnerships with FIRST as
mentors!
We are also proud to announce that Michelle Lintner has been selected as a Raytheon Scholar that
provides her with summer internship & college tuition & expenses for four years. This would have
never happened without her affiliation with FIRST through CRUSH. She was able to provide an
outstanding resume with useful experience gained from her FIRST participation. She had highly
relevant recommendations from her professional mentors vital to the selection process. She was
able to show relevant job experience as a FLL coach. Michelle looks forward to her partnership with
FIRST as a mentor & so the marvelous cycle of partnerships continues…
