A.S.T.R.O. Scorpions 19010 FTC Team
“It’s way more than building robots. FIRST Tech Challenge teams (up to 15 team members, grades 7-12) are challenged to design, build, program, and operate robots to compete in a head-to-head challenge in an alliance format.
Guided by adult coaches and mentors, students develop STEM skills and practice engineering principles, while realizing the value of hard work, innovation, and working as a team.
The robot kit is reusable from year to year and can be coded using a variety of levels of Java-based programming. Teams design and build robots, raise funds, design and market their team brand, and do community outreach to earn specific awards. Participants are eligible to apply for $80M+ in college scholarships.
Each season concludes with regional championship events and an exciting FIRST Championship” -FIRST
What is FIRST Tech Challenge? | FIRST (firstinspires.org)
During the off season months, the A.S.T.R.O. Vikings mentored an FTC team called the ASTRO Scorpions. This team was composed of 8 students, some had prior experience in the FIRST franchise. At the local competition the ASTRO Scorpions got last place in the robot games, but they had fun in the end.
”The first time we were on FTC unorganized unfocused and ill prepared. We were really new to the process of the team. When we went to competition we inevitably, did not to the greatest in fact we were dead-last mainly because we were the most inexperienced but this year, we have more members more experience and have learned some lessons from last year and now we have some fresh ideas and more input that will be useful to us. we are now having a more experienced team mentoring us and helping us fix our mistakes.” Jody Cerra, FTC member.
