On March 29th & 30th, thousands of students, parents, teachers and industry professionals will convene at Center Grove High School for the FIRST® Robotics FRC competition. Over 3,600 high school teams worldwide will participate in the FIRST® Robotics Competition this year.
Team’s reputations are on the line as they work on their machine to out perform the other teams. DESTINATION: DEEP SPACE, the name of this year’s game, has been exciting to watch and challenging to build. This is the final of three district competitions where high school age robotics teams can qualify for the State Championship Event.
At the conclusion of this district event, the team standings will determine which teams qualify to attend the State Championship and potentially the World Championship held in Detroit Michigan later in April.
FIRST® DESTINATION: DEEP SPACE has high school robotics team students around the world eager to capture a championship. After the game was revealed back in January, students have been brain-storming and drawing up designs for robots that will compete at several events this season. Teams had about 6 weeks to build their robots and now the competition season is underway. This event is the last in a series of three competitions that qualify teams to compete at the state championship where teams will qualify to move on to the world championship.
Rich Arkanoff, EdD, Center Grove Community School Corporation Superintendent said, “We are incredibly proud of the growth of our robotics programs in Center Grove. We renovated an existing building on our main campus into a STEM lab to encourage and inspire STEM learning for students and to provide a permanent home for our robotics teams. We kept the teams in mind during the construction of our Student Activity Center addition to Center Grove High School with the hopes that it would one day serve as a venue for robotics events. It is great to see those plans come to fruition with the announcement of this Indiana FIRST competition. We look forward to hosting this event and many more to come.”
Jeff Henderson, Center Grove High School Principal said, “We are excited to provide the opportunity for Red Alert Robotics to host an Indiana FIRST district competition at Center Grove High School. Our new Student Activity Center should serve as a great venue for this exciting competition. We look forward to welcoming all of the teams that will participate and look forward to a great event.”
Nathan Coulombe, Lead Mentor for Red Alert Robotics, and Tournament Director of the Center Grove District Event said, “Red Alert is excited to host an IndianaFIRST district competition at Center Grove High School in the brand new Student Activities Center. We have a great relationship with the school corporation, and they were very supportive of our tournament bid. The competition bid was several years in the making with the Student Activities Center being the final piece of the puzzle. With the addition of this district event, we are now able to host official events at all 4 levels of FIRST K-12 programs.”
Ginger Lirette, a mentor on team Galactech, from Columbus Indiana said, “FIRST is the fast track to preparing kids for success in the technology business world. I have seen no better program in giving kids life skills for working in teams similar to business models, learning creative and inventive problem solving within constraints which are ever present in real like, and equipping kids with hands on with technical and math knowledge as they construct true machines of purpose from theoretical and modeled designs. Every skill is tested to be successful in the real world.”
“FIRST isn’t about competing, it’s about cooperating, and recognizing that if you have the right tools, you’ll be able to make this world a better place for yourself and for the country,” said Dean Kamen, president of DEKA Research and Development and FIRST Founder, adding, “There is no stimulus package that will have as much return as stimulating a bunch of kids to become the workforce of the future, the problem solvers, the creators of the future.”
While the students are attracted to the challenge of building a robot, the main focus of FIRST® is on the skills the students develop in the program.
The atmosphere of a robotics competition is markedly similar to a basketball game; fans decked out in spirited clothing, constant cheering, and the moments of euphoria when a team scores just before the buzzer rings. It’s a truly incredible experience for all involved.
