The Growing Appeal Of Toga Party
George H. Staab · 2020
Abstract NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract Session 3425 The Growing Appeal of TOGA PARTY George H. Staab Associate Professor Aerospace Engineering, Applied Mechanics, and Aviation The Ohio State University 155 W. Woodruff Ave. Columbus, Ohio 43210 TOGA PARTY (Team OSU Grandview Heights American Electric Power Preparing And Readying Today's Youth) competed in FIRST for a second consecutive year. FIRST is a national competition designed to stimulate interest in science and technology among high school students. Each year teams obtain boxes of components, a limited dollar charge account from Small Parts Inc., and a description of the objectives for the competition. Once the materials are received, each team has six weeks to construct a robot capable of playing a competitive game or sport. The components used and the contest played by the robot changes from year to year. For some the head-to-head competition of robots is the primary focus, but other competitive aspects of the FIRST program are as closely scrutinized by officials as the actual robots. Teams also compete for the Chairman's award (presented to the team judged to have best exemplified the spirit of FIRST), an animation award created with 3-D Studio Max, team spirit award, design creativity, and others. Our partnership involved four engineers from American Electric Power (AEP), nineteen high school students from Grandview Heights High School, twenty university students from The Ohio State University, one high school and one university faculty advisor. The high school and university students had diverse backgrounds, interests, and educational objectives. High school students were all currently taking physics, but not all were interested in technology or engineering. The OSU students were from the colleges of engineering and arts and science. The AEP engineers were from different divisions with diverse experiences. This combination led to a partnership which provided everyone with a positive learning experience. The enthusiasm,