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MAIN MEDIA TEAM SPEAK Edline Facebook Safety Student Profiles Mentor Profiles FIRST PROJECT OTHER PROJECTS Real World Design Challenge VEX LINKS Hawaii FIRST Regional |
Safety  Safety should be a priority for all. For some teams, safety is usually not a priority. Safety is like a checklist of requirements to enable teams to get by without any safety infractions. It is rare when a team goes “above and beyond” what needs to get done. This year, Lancer Robotics Team 2437 has the objective of putting safety on the top of the list. In the beginning of the build season, the Safety Captains went with Mentor Karen Miller from BAE to the Pearl Harbor Navy Shipyards to talk with its Safety Manager, Mark Kavalawski. His experience with FIRST as a mentor for Radford High School’s Robotics Team last year, and as a judge this year, helped us jump start our new and improved Robotics Safety Program. During this visit, Ms. Miller brought up the idea of creating a “safety culture.” Within this culture, safety is not just a checklist, but rather having safety as second nature. What we learn in the Robotics Lab cam be taken to a larger scale, which is our out-of-school environment. Another idea that came up was creating a Safety Binder. This binder basically documents what our team contributed to our safety program. This binder contains safety procedures when entering the Robotics Lab, changes within the Safety Program, safety surveys and more. Future teams will contribute to this growing binder. A new addition to our Robotics Lab is our money jar. If anyone commits a safety infraction or puts him, herself or others in danger, then that person must pay a 25¢ fee per infraction. This money goes towards our snack fund. The entire Robotics Lab was rearranged to be more efficient and safe. We now have designated areas for certain jobs, such as building, computer work and electronics. The build area is separate from the rest of the room, designated by hot pink tape. Upon entering the build area, one must wear safety glasses and the proper attire, which is a long pair of pants, hair tied back or braided, and an appropriate T-shirt. Posted on various areas of the room are safety signs. These are reminders to keep oneself and others safe. A big project for the Safety Captains was creating a MSDS binder. Prior to putting together a binder, they searched every chemical in the Robotics Lab. A MSDS, which is an acronym for Material Safety Data Sheet, addresses the safety precautions of potentially harmful chemicals. With the list of chemicals in the lab, the Safety Captains researched the MSDS for each chemical. The Safety Captains focused on the procedure when coming in contact with a chemical, the level of danger and which other chemicals to avoid mixing. For those chemicals that required immediate action, a piece of pink tape was placed on it. This is a busy year for the traveling team because they will be traveling to San Diego, California to compete in the San Diego Regional and Atlanta, Georgia for the World Championship. In order for this to be a safe trip, the Safety Captains put together a safety section for the travel binder. This includes locations of the nearest hospitals, safety tips within the hotels and what to do in case of a car accident. Since safety should be an important consideration for everyone, Team 2437 quickly decided to share that important resource through their website, with other teams traveling to San Diego. |
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