Camden County Technical Schools
$38,000
John Moore
Anthony DePrince
2007 Chesapeake Regional Champions
2005 Chesapeake Motorola Award
2002 National Imagry Award
2002 Regional Imagry Award
1997 Team Spirit Award
3 Freshman
7 Sophmore
1 Junior
6 Senior
Team 203 learned about the FIRST competition through our partnership with Campbell's Soup and Siemens' Electronics in 1997. Each year we have learned more and have become more focused on our goals and strategies. We have strengthened our team through a partnership with Garvey Corporation, who supplied us with technical and financial support. What makes our team unique is that our robot is built almost entirely in-school by students in various career programs. In addition to building the robot, the students write the software program, build the arena and goals, design logos and uniforms, machine and weld the parts, and decorate the finished robot.
To appreciate that the world of engineering and science can be fun and rewarding.
All 1500 students at Camden County Technical Schools are aware of the FIRST project and are encouaged to try out for the team. Beccause of FIRST, there has been an increase in student attendance and grades have improved. The students on the team are positive role models, high achievers and passionate advocates for FIRST.
Camden County Technical School recruits students from 45 elementary/middle schools from within the county. More than half our students reside in the city of Camden, NJ with the rest living in neighboring towns. Because we are a technical hogh school, we have the uniqu oppurtunity to involve our entire school community. Camden County Technical Schools has spread the FIRST ideals throughout the school. We have even established a Pre-Engineering career program and a very popular FIRST/Technical Projects elective as a result of FIRST.
A large majority of our students come from "inner" city, Camden, NJ. These students come to us with weak math and science scores and many of them have very low expectations for themselves, especially in these areas. We encourage these students to strive to do their best so that they can be a part of the team. Our strength comes from building their self-esteem and encouraging them to continue on to a career in the field of engineering.
Our major challenge has been these same students. Since their expectations for themselves are so low, it is sometimes difficult to get them to "reach for the stars." Because the City of Camden has been ranked one of the Nations "most dangerous cities", violence and drugs are a large part of the young peoples' culture. We have all worked together to help overcome this obstacle. FIRST has made a difference.
This year the students have worked very hard on the website, and we believe the hard work will pay off with the Website Award. Once again our graphics design should make us very competitive for the Imagery Award. The overall engineering and robustness of "Rocky" should make us strong candidates for many of the other awards. As always we hope to be competitive during the competition matches.
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FIRST Robotics