Long ago at a school named Dawson two young men decided to buy a poorly-maintained van. Although the van was something you might find in breaking bad, it became the catalyst that started it all. RC Dawson was spray painted on the side of the van and little knew that this name spray painted onto a van with mediocre artistic ability would become the centerpiece of the greatest program known to Dawson. The van sat in Dawson’s parking lot begging to be towed, but just like the resiliency of the RC Dawson team, the van stayed put and refused to be towed away. The van was a foreshadow of events to come, great, phenomenal events. In 2008 the owners of the van decided that the work they were doing was limited due to the confined space of this van. They took it upon themselves to found the robotics team at Dawson and fittingly named it after their beloved van, RC Dawson.
When the program was started in 2008 little paid attention to it and it received less credibility than it should have. RC Dawson was the underdog, the abandoned van, the group of misfits. The funny thing is though the misfits seem to always find their way and in most cases rise above anyones expectations. It didn't take long before RC Dawson rose to the top and became the most participated in extracurricular activity at the Dawson School. Here is a timeline:
300 BC - Not really sure what was happening, but something important probably happened
1776 AD - Most important year ever…very critical to the ability for RC Dawson to be founded
2008 - The van makes its debut on Dawson School’s campus and RC Dawson is founded
2009 - This was a landmark year for RC Dawson because it was our first event. The event was comparable to the first episode of Glee. For those of you who don’t watch glee the first episode goes like this: A teacher has 5 or 6 students that would kind of dance around and sing with enthusiasm. They showed up to the first competition and were amazed. The first team to perform is choreographed, has matching outfits and their performance in general was very professional. There is this great shot of the team in Glee that shows the team just in aww. RC Dawson was essentially the cast of glee in the first episode, but just like how Glee improved after seeing what their competition was like, RC Dawson followed suit.
note that team grew 330% in terms of student participation in first two years
2010 - Our team builds a robot that looked like a pile of gold compared to the other one. This year 7th and 8th grade students are now eligible to partake in the program.
2011 - Due to our less extensive resume RC Dawson was picked last during the alliance selection at regionals. We made it effortlessly through regionals and competed in the Archimedes division at World Championships in St. Louis. Although we didn't perform well in the arena, our team members dancing prowess was displayed at Roboprom and was unmatched to say the least.
2012 - Our robot “Tim Tebot” makes competes in the Kansas City regional and does extremely well. Program is still growing…a lot
2013 - We went to Denver regional and came out 3rd in autonomous and 17th overall. We were selected by the fourth place alliance and lost to eventual champions.
2014 - This year the program had its largest number of participants and only one senior. Our team endured a miserable bus ride to Lubbock, Texas where the odors of team members became overbearing on peoples noses. We didn’t exactly pass inspection smoothly, but we made it to the quarterfinals. However, the decision to go to Texas was a good one because we were more than prepared for the competition in Colorado. After the preliminary rounds we were in 7th place and unlike recent years we were now the captains selecting the other teams. We lost to the eventual winners in the semifinals.
2015 - To be determined….(but it will be great)
3000 - We will have robots making our robots…hopefully
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