About Us Team 2936 Gatorzillas

Team Gatorzillas formed late in December of 2008. Jim Fox and Chris Sanborn both had worked with FIRST Robotics and Team 118 (Robonauts) for several years. They wanted to start a rookie team this year, so they approached Dickinson High School. Celeste Brooks was one of the teachers and expressed interest in doing the program. In the meantime, several mentors from Team 1865 (Thurgood Marshall High School) also expressed interest in starting a rookie team. These mentors met up with Jim and Chris and formed the core mentor team for Dickinson. An invitation was sent out to the entire Dickinson High School student body and we had a packed room for the first meeting with the mentors, teachers, and students. After the presentation of the First program and level of commitment, the team did settle to a core of 15 students. The students ranged from freshmen to seniors. The students attended the First Robotics Kick Off at Johnson Space Center and were very excited and a little scared of what they got themselves into. After talking with the mentors and teachers, the students were relieve and began talking about what they wanted to do in designing the robot. Several designs were discussed and some were prototyped with cardboard and wood. We built a kitbot (simple robot) and began some weight distribution analysis and coefficient of friction (sliding and static) testing. We also started some testing with traction control. We finally settled on a design and began construction. It took us 4 very long weeks to build the robot and get it fully functional. This year we did an outreach to the Dickinson 8th grade class to teach them about FIRST Robotics Competition. We also did fund raising events like a car wash to raise money for our trip to the FRC Championship in Atlanta.

2009 Highlights :