​Team Communications

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All online team communications happen via Discord. Once you have signed up for the team you will receive an email inviting you to our Discord server. It's important that you join immediately so that you are aware of the team schedule and happenings. Not only do we share news to Discord, but that is where all communications occur about the game plus robot research, design and building.

 

Parents do not join Discord and instead receive email communications from the team separately.

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How To Get Involved 

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1) Come to lab hours as often as possible. Simply put, you will get out of FRC what you put into it. Everyone on the team was brand new once and most new team members have little or no experience with robotics and/or FIRST. We encourage you to jump in and ask lots of questions. Take advantage of the fall lab hours to "get your bearings" because once build season arrives on January 4th, a tremendous amount of work has to happen in a very short amount time, and the learning becomes much more on the fly.

 

During the fall, specific topics will be taught by adult Mentors during lab hours. These will be posted, in advance, to the Team calendar and Discord.. This is a critical time for sharing knowledge, and it is strongly encouraged that you attend as many sessions as possible.

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One topic - Tool Safety Training - is MANDATORY for all new team members. Date TBA.

 

The team will also be working on a small robot project, in preparation for Build Season.

 

2) Ask to learn what you don't know. For ex: if electrical is putting together batteries and you don't know anything about it, sit and ask to be part of the process. The adult Mentors and team Leads are happy to share their knowledge and experience with you.

 

3) Learn CAD. Being able to participate in this piece is crucial - team members have to be able to do and read CAD to build a robot. CAD is taught in Introduction to Engineering (IED) in MCPS, plus there are numerous online resources. Team 1389 uses Onshape to design our robots.

 

4) Actively participate in the Team Discord, 

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​An important note about subteams!  When first getting started, you do not have to decide which subteam you want to join, though you may choose to do so if you are already certain. Take the opportunity to explore and learn about the different subteams. Many team members will not settle into one subteam until much later in the season. 

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Read more about the sub teams here.