WHY IS THE NUMBER 6164 IMPORTANT?

Dike-New Hartford High School has a FIRST Robotics Competition competitive team. When a school signs up they receive a permanent number. So when you see 6164, you will start to recognize the Moonshot Slaybots, currently in our second competitive year. They are coached by Chelsie Slaba and Joanna Seymour.

On January 7, 2017, teams from around the world received the Steamworks challenge. Team 6164 had six weeks to build a robot to meet this challenge.  The students were ambitious and designed a robot with a fluid mecanum drive that could easily maneuver around objects and place gears on a steamship. It could also shoot fuel balls and climb a five foot rope. Students spent hundreds of hours after school and on weekends to build their robot and were very proud of their accomplishment. This game animation will help you better understand the Steamworks challenge.  

The Moonshot Slaybots competed at the Iowa Regional competition at UNI's McLeod Center March 23-25, 2017. Competing with and against 53 other teams proved to be challenging. The team learned so much about the importance of collaboration and communication. They also had to quickly problem-solve between matches in order to make the robot better suited to the challenge. (The robot we walked out with looked different than the one we prepared for competition.) With a win-loss record of 2-6 in the qualifying rounds, the team was disappointed to not move on, but the team recognized that they learned more from match losses than match wins.  Most of all, the students are making plans for next year. Even though we won't know the new challenge until January, we know there is a LOT to learn and do in the off-season to be ready for whatever diabolical challenge FIRST thinks up.

The team would like to thank Mike Albers. Due to his generosity, The Slaybots were donated a space (and given suggestions and help) to build this season's robot. Thank you also to Yellow Jacket Enterprises LLC for building us a cart for competition. With grants from Monsanto, the Iowa STEM Council, FIRST, the Community Foundation, and John Deere, we were able to purchase the tools and supplies needed to design and build our workshop, robot, and team branding. We also had help from three fabulous volunteers; Tyler Stricker and Jim Foss from John Deere and Paul Rael from Doerfer Companies. They helped students learn more about engineering, construction, electrical components, and design.

The coaches would like to commend students for their hard work. Quoting from a video from Ben Barney,

"This isn't a robot. It very well may have hydraulic arms, a drivetrain, and a circuitboard, but this isn't a robot. This is a lesson in humility, hard work, and collaboration. This is a Crossfit workout for the muscle upstairs. This is an apple for the next generation of Newtons. It's a lot of things, but this isn't a robot. This is a roadmap that leads straight to engineering. This is a rock to shatter a thousand glass ceilings, a rope to pull a generation up and out of poverty, a sledgehammer to breakdown cultural barriers, and a universal language spoken in every nation on Earth. And because of that, this is a compass to point the way to peace. But please, don't think this is just a robot. This is Glastonbury for technology. This is Mission Control for the next moonshot. This is the Rosetta Stone to help translate the future. This is the sport that will help us win Tomorrow. This is the software to program ourselves to cure cancer, build a clean engine, or step foot on Mars. But this isn't a robot. It's a machine to build the people who will change the world."

BRAVO to our students! Those that take on the challenge of robotics will truly change the world.
Here are the 2017 Moonshot Slaybots
Seniors: Isabella Dietrich, Hanna Euchner, Liz Gaffey, Ben Purdy
Juniors: Maya Despenas, Colton Glick, Adie Murphy
Sophomores: Brad Cunningham, Tori Fernandez, Jacob Foss, Sydney Hoffman, Sawyer Loger, Jon McCallum, Dylan Messerschmidt, Lauren Vanderlind
Freshmen: Trey Bradley