Etowah’s Electric Eagles

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With the goal of helping and inspiring other students, Noah Minter, senior and founder of the “Etowah Electric Eagles” robotics team, is passionate about spreading word of the new robotics team here on Eagle Mountain.

  “I sent KB an email before school ended last year, and I said ‘Hey KB, I’m interested in starting a robotics team at Etowah,’ and he said, ‘Okay, talk to Dr. Heglund and Mr. Farrell’. I met with them over summer, and [we] laid out groundwork for the team. From there, we began our recruiting process,” Minter said.

Kaybee, named after Etowah’s Principal Keith Ball, otherwise known as KB.

Consisting of 25 students, the FIRST Robotics Competition, otherwise known as the Electric Eagles, works towards building a robot for Worlds. They are tasked with building a 120 pound robot, which they named Kaybee, in six weeks. Then they take it to the district qualifiers where other local teams compete against them to complete the challenges and gain the most points. Winners of the district qualifiers will go on to state championships, and then those winners will go to Worlds.

  FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, and it does just that.

  “There was not a FIRST Robotics Competition in Cherokee County, and I saw the need and so many kids wanting to be involved in something as cool as this. It is more than just a senior project and a grade; it is about inspiring students to be the next generation of technology leaders,” Minter said.

    On January 7, the team watched the reveal of the theme at their homes, as they got snowed in and could not make it down to Georgia Tech.  This year’s theme is Steamworks. The rules of the game were also revealed.

Noah and his team meet at his house during the snow days to discuss plans for their robot.

Once they were able to get on the roads, the Electric Eagles met up and had a long day going over rules, figuring out strategies,  and beginning to design the robot. For the competitions, certain requirements are set for the robots. Objectives of the competitions consist of a number of abilities from designing the robot to shoot foam balls into high goals to making the robot climb. The batteries in the robot also challenge the engineering side of creating. Powered by a 12-volt battery, the entire robot weighs about 120 pounds.

  “This year we are having to move objects that are very large from one part of the field to another part. One of them for example is a 12-inch wide gear. We are also shooting large wiffle balls this year. It’s a lot of different and fun stuff,” Minter said.

  For Minter’s senior project, he raised the funds for the registration costs and getting the team number. He wrote to a lot of businesses, and filled out a lot of grant applications. His project was very helpful, as he succeeded in getting a $6,000 grant from NASA and a $1,500 check from The Towne Lake Optimist Club.

 Although this is a relatively new team, practices are consistent, and all student participants are finding themselves working together well.

  “It functions pretty well considering it is a rookie team. We are still working out some of the kinks,” Dan Mulloy, senior, said.