e-Store Kick Off

Inventor Of The Segway Has Another Bright Idea

Dean Kamen helps young engineers light the way to a cleaner future with a 7 watt light bulb.
In his quest for a fundraising item for FIRST® Robotics teams, inventor Dean Kamen tapped LED manufacturer Cree to produce an 450 lumen light bulb that draws just 7 watts. This people and planet healthy business model helps FIRST Robotics teams raise money for hands-on science and technology education, protects the environment and provides cost savings to consumers - all at the same time.

The FIRST®Green e-watt saver bulb is a state-of-the-art, 7-watt LED light bulb that replaces up to a conventional 60-watt household light bulb. The LED bulbs are the latest in lighting technology with an average life of 10,000 hours. They utilize only 10 percent of the energy of traditional bulbs, with no mercury, so they may be disposed of without harming the environment. In addition to “doing good” for the environment, supporters are also “doing well” for education and the future of our youth.

LED technology is the latest in residential and commercial lighting. Traditional incandescent bulbs are being phased out nationwide over the next few years in an effort to save energy. Compact florescent bulbs (CFL) have been available for a number of years but are generally considered inferior in terms of the light provided and contain mercury which makes disposable of the bulbs harmful for the environment.

FIRST®Green e-watt saver bulbs can be purchased in The Holy Cows e-store for only $19.99 with 100% of proceeds going to their robotics team expenses.

FIRST Robotics: The varsity sport for the mind, the FIRST Robotics competition combines the excitement of sports with the rigors of science and technology. Under strict rules, limited resources, and time limits, teams of 25 students or more are challenged to raise funds, design a team “brand,” hone teamwork skills, and build and program robots to perform prescribed tasks against a field of competitors. It’s as close to “real-world engineering” as a student can get. Students get to learn from professional engineers, build and compete with a robot of their own design, learn and use sophisticated software and hardware, compete and cooperate in alliances and tournaments, and qualify for over $14 million in college scholarships. Over 250,000 students and 90,000 adult Mentors and Volunteers from more than 50 countries participate annually.

The Holy Cows: The Holy Cows, FIRST Robotics Team 1538, are 2 time winners of the prestigious Regional Chairman’s Award and based out of High Tech High School in San Diego. They’ve rubbed elbows with the likes of Oprah, Bill Gates and Dean Kamen and were the center of a Wealth TV documentary about FIRST Robotics. Most importantly The Holy Cows, through FIRST Robotics, focus on preparing members for leadership roles in the community as well as work tirelessly year round to grow an appreciation for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering
and Math) in the community.

2010 - 2011 team photo

1 on 1 workshop

Yesterday we did a 1 on 1 workshop for a rookie team at Crawford High School. Jon and David gave the students and mentors a lot of information in the morning, then we helped them build a kit bot, tuff box and taught them a little bit of wiring.

Busy weekend for the Herd

The team had a crazy busy, fun weekend. Saturday afternoon we went to Albert Einstein Academy to attend and help out with their Lantern Festival. We set up a booth and talked about FIRST, our team, we took and printed a bunch of pictures of families with Daisy and the kids also got a chance to drive our square bots they are so excited about robotics.

Daisy was able to walk in the lantern parade and was a big hit.On Sunday morning we hosted an FLL QT Tournament at High Tech High. The FLL kids were very excited to be competing and we had many rookie teams attend the event and they all did really well.

Finally, at the end of the day the Brain Busters came out on top as the champions of the event. Congratulations to the Brain Busters and all the teams that qualified for the Championship at Legoland in December.

Who we gonna call??? BRAIN BUSTERS!!

FLL team workshop at Legoland

Today our team headed back to Legoland California to run an FLL workshop on programming. We had team from around San Diego and even ones that came from Palm Springs. It was a great day we did a 2 hour session in the morning and a two and a half hour session in the afternoon. Those kids really got the programming and the afternoon session finished the introduction and the intermediate booklet. The Holy Cows were impressed with these kids ability to quickly pick up the programming.

Chris is showing some girls from Palm Springs where to set their program.
Jo, Kristen and Stephen getting Daisy Bell ready to demo

Wyatt answering questions from a few curious FLL team members

Henry helping with some programming

Jeremy demonstrating some of the sensors to excited team members

Jenna Druck Foundation Family Day

Today we got to go help out at Family Day at the Jenna Druck Foundation. It was a support day for mom's, dad's, teens and children who have lost a loved one close to them. We helped set up, serve food and even play games with the children. It was a great day for the Holy Cows to get out into our community.

Here Wyatt and Chris got to play football with the biggest 10 year old Holy Cows fan. He came to the pits last year at the San Diego Regional and met the team, he was so excited to be able to play football with them.

Travis and Chris worked on their hula hoop skills.

Hailey and Amber have it wired.

Here is Dr. Druck consoling some families who have lost their children recently.

Daisy Bell Shows up at Legoland

Today a few members of our team showed up at the SDSA (San Diego Science Alliance) workshop for FLL leaders and teachers at Legoland Carlsbad. We had many team leaders, teachers and little visitors to the park stop by and ask questions about Daisy Bell, many got to see her kicking in action. The boys were asked a million questions about the robot to where they want to go to school and about their high school. They all left visiting us impressed with the kids knowledge of the robot and how they could think on their feet. Way to go team 1538!