NATIONAL
SPONSORS:
CoCo BEST Success Stories !
The following inputs were received from people who were involved in prior CoCo BEST
robotics programs. We will update this page as often as we receive inputs. You can
see from the inputs that the program goals are to inspire and motivate students to
be creative, accept challenges and participate with others in a team environment.
Our thanks go the the many volunteers, mentors, teachers, and sponsors without whom
the program would not exist. Please e-mail us with your success stories.
"October
24, 2003
To Whom It May Concern::
In high school I was always certain that I wanted to go to college. Yet I never had
any real direction or goals as my experiences were very limited due to growing up
in a small community. My junior year of high school (Fall 1998 - Dynamite Duel) I
was approached by one of my teachers if I would be interested in joining a robotics
team that would engage in a yearly competition. This opportunity was something in
which I was very interested and participated in for the next two years.
After helping to start the Celina BEST team, I am very proud to see it has grown
while I have been away in college. I have graduated now with a degree in Electrical
Engineering from Texas A&M University at College Station. I am currently an entry
level Substation Design Engineer with Grayson-Collin Electric Cooperative, Inc.,
and I have rejoined the Celina team as a mentor engineer.
If I had not participated
in the BEST competitions, I do not believe I would have become an engineer. The competition
opened my eyes to the career possibilities in engineering, science, and technology,
which have always been an interest of mine. For providing this opportunity and introducing
me to a rewarding career, I thank you.
Sincerely,
Peter T. Nylec
Texas A&M University
Class
of 2003"
"October 25, 2003
Dear CoCo BEST volunteers and sponsors,
I wanted to thank you for
all of the work and financial support that you have put into this year's CoCo BEST.
I know that you put in long hours of your own time and I want you to know that this
program is making a difference.
Lucas Christian Academy is a small (about 250 pK -
12 students) Christian school. This is our first year participating in the BEST competition.
With such a small team (only 6 students) and no financial resources it has been difficult
at time but rewarding.
Excitement grew throughout the school as the robot was built.
The preschoolers viewed the robot as a living-breathing creature. They would talk
for hours excitedly about it. The elementary kids viewed the robot as the coolest
toy in the world. Siblings of the team members would proudly say, “my sister built
that” as if their status was elevated by familial association. The middle schoolers
viewed the robot as an exciting project and hoped that they to would get to participate
someday. The high school students viewed the robot as a cool incentive to learning.
Several high school students have said that they are willingly giving up their summer
to take summer school classes at Quad C so they can be enrolled in physics next fall.
Finally, member of the robotic team viewed the robot as a new future. Prior to this
experience most of the students were unfocused about their future plans. Now most
of the team is planning on going to college to major in engineering or science.
Regardless
of how LCA does in this year's competition we are already winners. We have succeeded
in satisfying the goals of the program: boosting engineering science and technology.
We look forward to participating in future competitions and encouraging a new batch
of future scientists.
Thank you for such a wonderful opportunity.
Heather Baxter
Coach
Lucas
Christian Academy"
"As a retired engineer, it is marvelous to be on the school Robotics team again this
year. These students are energetic and industrious in creating their version of the
1998 robot to compete in "Toxic Troubles". Their individual commitments to team work
and elbow grease is very admirable and their achievements reflect on their high goals
for the 1998 contest. The team's mentor is a respected, effective and well-liked
teacher and the school leadership is very supportive. The students have expressed
much thanks to CoCo BEST for the 1998 invitation."
"Teach a man to fish and you've fed him for a lifetime. Through skills learned from
the BEST competition, students have acquired a better understanding of the engineering
process and an increased awareness of organizational necessities. They have been
given the facilities to conquer future obstacles and feed their hunger for knowledge."
"My son wouldn't be at the Naval Academy if it hadn't been for the leadership and
teamwork skills learned from participating in the BEST program."
"We want you to know that the BEST program is well worth the time, effort, and expense
that the sponsors had to provide. One of my students, a prior participant in US FIRST,
said that this contest was better because the students did the work."
"The NERDS [Naaman Forest, Garland] had a super time at TEXAS BEST, even though we
didn't place as high as we thought we could have. We still don't know why our robot
seemed to have lost a lot of its power."
"All I did on the web site was talk about the contest and how proud we were that
Mesquite had such a wonderful showing and to represent the Dallas BEST organization."
"Could you please tell me how the Rockwall robot did in this year's game. I was a
member of last years team that went to state and I am now at Boston University studing
electrical engineering. I would be very thankful for your reply."
"Hi Bruce, just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed this years contest. Each
year gets more organized and efficient. What I particularly appreciated was the effort
that you took to keep the teams on task rather than battling each other. For the
last couple of years our machine has been practically destroyed by other teams bumping,
knocking and tipping our relatively small device. Nothing was done, and we were rendered
helpless by the interference. This year at the drivers meetings the idea apparently
got across that interference would not be tolerated, and as a result the contest
was much more fair for all, and was much more fun to watch. Unfortunately for us,
our team noted in the rules that tipping a machine over was not considered destructive,
so in light of our past experience our strategy this year involved a wedge to do
that if necessary (tipping someone over that is). So, we were cut off at the knees
before contest started! However, that is a minor tradeoff if the contest will continue
to enforce the no interference concept. Its so much better than having kids battle
it out without being called down for it. Everybody appreciated Anna's victory because
they did it in first class fashion.
Thanks again for all your extra work on all this.
I dont see how you get it all done year after year. I hope when your energy level
flags that you will remember how much you have changed kids lives for the better
by doing this reality-based competition. On Friday afternoon before the contest,
when I saw our complete documentation book sitting by our completely finished functioning
robot, ready to send to check-in, I thought, 'We have won just by getting this far
so well'.
Thanks again."
Gary Sorenson, Caddo Mills High School
"I have the current privilege of temporarily mentoring a Plano West HS fresh Grad
who has been hired into a coop program here. We have worked together for a couple
of days and will probably wrap the job up next week and off he goes to other things.
The guy is sharp electronically (considering) with NO high school electric/electronic
courses. So, yesterday we are walking down the hall doing some small talk and all
(giving a tour of the factory) and he says, "Did you ever hear of COCO BEST?". I
said yes ....... . He said, "We built this cool robot and ....... ". You could see
his eyes light up when he started talking about it. So, my good man, where do you
think he got the impetus to take up EE for a career. While I was complimenting him
on his achievements, I informed him how fortunate he is to be able to see why he
needs to study those hard EE courses, with all of that time consuming homework, and
why he needs to make good grades, and what he can do with that education that he
probably wouldn't have become interested in had it not been for you and the COCO
team.
I salute you sir."
Mark Tomek
- Zachary Hartman (Anna) - Univ of North Texas
Jim Lecheler (Allen) - University of Oklahoma
Kaylee Pelham (Anna) - Univ of Texas, Arlington
This page has been prepared to show where the CoCo BEST "alumni" have gone after High School. If you were a former participant and would like to be listed here, please submit your Name, Year(s) and where you went after High School.