Clarksville Texas High School "Clarksville High School " Sweep Decisive Botball Robotics Victory Seeking Funds to Attend International Botball Championship in Washington D.C. July 1 - July 7, 2009 Jane Avila, Instructor/Teacher - Media Contact javila@clarksvilleisd.org 903-782-4132 We need $5900 to  fund trip to the Global Robotics Conference and Botball Competition in Washington DC on July 1 - July 7, 2009. Please help.  Even a few dollars makes a difference! Press Release | Botball

Greetings

The Clarksville Clarksville High School Botball Robotics team the "Clarksville High School " was the runnerup in Texas Botball robotics championship in Houston, Texas/ University of Houston/ April 5, 20, and has been invited to compete in the International Botball Championship in Washington D.C. on June 30 – July 7, 2009.  The Clarksville High School need $5900 to cover travel expenses to this once-in-a-lifetime chance to compete in this famous International competition. A sponsor has come forward but funds are still needed to send the 8 students and 2 adults to the East coast.

The Clarksville High School are a real “Cinderella story”.  Many team members are “Low Economic students”. Many of these young people are holding down jobs to help with family expences while attending high school and struggling to maintain the grades to qualify them for college.  Yet somehow these young people found time to create a winning robots that was runnerup in the Texas Botball championship.

Botball is unique in that all robots are fully autonomous.  Unlike other robotics competitions that rely on remote control to adjust the robot's tactics, Botball robots execute a pre-programmed strategy designed by the student teams.  Once the competition begins, no human input is allowed.  1 teams competed and 120 cheered in the March 2009 Texas Botball Championship, including well funded teams from several better funded school districts in & around Clarksville.

Clarksville High School is deep in the heart of the low social /economic area of Red River County. So, funding for the program was hard to come by.  A teacher volunteered for robotics mentoring because no money was available for overtime, robot spare parts had to be scrounged or borrowed from other schools, no money was available to transport the students to the regional competitions. The Clarksville High School Clarksville High School were barely expected to enter the competition, let alone finish, let alone place. Yet with so much working against them, the Clarksville High School Clarksville High School somehow beat all odds and swept the competition and took runnerup, including:

The Clarksville team won 3rd in the Seeding round, 2nd in the Double Elimination and 2nd place over all. At least 50% of the teams were private or magnet schools.

The Clarksville High School are invited to the national championship, but the school district has no money to send them, and the parents do not have resources to fund the trip.  Corporate sponsors are stepping up to help, but fundraising got a very late start because nobody expected these underdogs to win the competition.  So we are asking for help from all sources to sponsor these underdogs’ life-altering chance to compete in the International Botball Championship competition.

Please consider sponsoring one of the underdog Clarksville High School listed below in their life changing journey to D.C.  Anything you can contribute would be a great help, even a few dollars would be great, in getting this award-winning underdog team to proudly represent Texas in the International Botball Championships.

Thank you for your support!  Go Clarksville High School !!!

Jane Avila, Instructor/Teacher
1500 East Main Clarksville, Texas 75426 Clarksville High School
javila@clarksvilleisd.org  903-782-4132

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PRESS RELEASE

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Corporations Sponsor Texas Runnerup Clarksville High School High School "Clarksville High School " Botball Educational Robotics Champions

The KISS Institute for Practical Robotics KIPR declares the Clarksville High School l Team as the 2009 Texas Botball Educational Robotics Tournament runnerup on Houston, Texas/ University of Houston/ April 5, 20  Clarksville. An estimated 120 spectators cheered for the 1 competing in the Texas Botball teams during the final Texas competition. 

The 8 members of the Texas champion Botball Robotics Competition  "Clarksville High School " who was runnerup in the Texas's Championship Title, are currently raising funds to cover the estimated 5900 required to attend the prestigious international Botball conference in Washington D.C. from June 30 - July 7, 2009.

Clarksville High School  is part of the Low Income District Clarksville School District and funds are not available from the school for the trip.  Donations are sought to allow the Clarksville High School to attend this prestigious and life changing conference. The annual International Botball Tournament takes place during the Global Conference on Educational Robotics . More than 6,000 international students participate in Botball every year and more than 60,000 have competed over 11 years. In 2009, teams from 23 states and 6 countries will participate in Botball.

The Botball Educational Robotics Program engages middle and high school aged students in a team-oriented robotics competition that develops students’ science, technology, engineering, computer science and math skills. In Botball, all the design, coding, and building of robots is done by students, and no machining is necessary.. The theme of this year's game was “Alternative Energy”.

For more information about Botball please see: www.Botball.org or contact: outreach@kipr.org

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CONTACTS
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Jane Avila, Teacher
javila@clarksvilleisd.org
903-782-4132
Jane held team meeting and practices after school and on Saturday all 2nd semester.

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PARTNER'S INFORMATION
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Botball   http://www.Botball.org
KISS Institute for Practical Robotics, an educational non-profit organization, will present 14 Botball Workshops and Tournaments this year - 12 in the United States and 2 based internationally.  The Botball Program begins with a 2-day professional development workshop where educators and team leaders learn about current robotics technology and how to implement it into their classroom or community. Through the course of the workshop, participants receive all the information about the current Botball game and the reusable robotics kit and components - Students construct a working demo bot! 

Clarksville High School   http://www.clarksvilleisd.net/home.aspx
The Texas Clarksville High School consist of 8 student members and 2 teacher/mentors, who partner to build & program robots for robotic competitions all around the Texas area.  1 first languages are represented by this student team from the low income neighborhoods in Clarksville.  The Clarksville High School swept the competition against stiff competition from much better funded and more robotically-experienced school districts, through a combination of hard work and clever robotics implementation.
1500 East Main, Clarksville, TX 75426 903-427-3891
Be all you can be at CISD!