End of 2024 Newsletter
I hope all of you are doing well; we are in the last stretch before winter break! This is a reminder that Thursday, December 5th, is the last work session for the year as Carlmont School is headed into finals. We will resume sessions on January 4th, or the official kick-off date for FIRST Robotics Competitions. After the kick-off, we go straight into brainstorming and prototyping for our new robot.
Additional work session days will be added to the team’s week so that we can work on our new tasks. Times for “Build Season” are as follows: Sunday from 10am-5pm, Tuesday and Friday from 4pm-9pm, and Saturday from 1pm-6pm. Again, students will get more out of Robotics by attending ~2/3 of all work sessions, but should always put their academic work first. Please check the official Carlmont robotics calendar here for more/current information.
The season kick-off will be on January 4th, as said above, and we recommend that all students who can, should come to the Student Union by 8:45 am as the game premiers at 9. It is not a problem if your student cannot make it (due to travel, etc.).
Again, we are in need of parent volunteers. Being a parent volunteer requires no experience, just some time out of your day. As a parent volunteer, you are only required to be present in the room to “supervise” the students. You can bring a computer to work during work sessions if you choose. To become a volunteer, you must submit an application using the Carlmont Robotics Volunteer Registration form. Once approved, the team will send you an email to complete the District’s online Volunteer application. Get the email from the District asking you to get your Live Scan fingerprinting and complete it. The District process will take about 1-3 weeks to clear as a Level 2 Volunteer. Here is a link to the different levels of volunteers. Anyone can stop by during work session hours and observe the team. Please consider taking some time to help support our team. It enables us to drive to competitions and have our many weekly work sessions. The team would be ever grateful for your support and commitment.
We recently had our robotics rookie competition called Mechanical M-Ayhem, courtesy of, and in partnership with, Menlo Atherton High School. SF Unity, Woodside, Gateway, and Nueva high schools also attended with their new members. Mechanical M-Ayhem is a more basic version of the full FRC competitions. It’s a friendly, low-stakes, unofficial event that helps train new members and lets them experience the building process and competition before our real one starts in January. We proudly announce that both Deep Blue teams have tied for first place (out of 13 total rookie teams) at this year’s event. Additionally, both teams went undefeated during the entire competition. This is our third year participating in this competition, and we will probably continue next year.
We extend our heartfelt thanks to all our mentors and parent volunteers for their unwavering support and guidance. Their dedication and commitment are the driving force behind our team’s growth and success. We are truly grateful for their invaluable contributions and could not have come this far without them. I wish everyone happy holidays and good luck on your student’s finals.
