ABOUT
We are a Christian homeschooled robotics team competing in FIRST® Tech Challenge, one of the high school programs in FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). We have a lot of fun learning about and solving the problems presented to us in the game challenge. Each year we plan, design, build, program, test, and drive a robot that we think will do well on the competition field. We set up our team like a business with subteams (departments) that are technical and non-technical. This allows us to experience real-world team building strategies while ensuring all the work gets done.
We began as an FLL (FIRST® Lego League) team in 2009 in the Smart Move challenge. From there we went on to compete in Body Forward, Food Factor, and Senior Solutions. In our Senior Solutions year, we competed in the 2013 FLL World Festival in St. Louis, MO where we won the 3rd Place Champion’s Award.
In 2014 we moved up to FTC where we competed in Block Party. As a rookie team, we made it to Worlds and were nominated for the Think Award (engineering notebook documentation). In 2015, we returned to the FIRST® World Championship where we were nominated for the Think and the Control (software and sensors) Awards. We also placed in the top 30% of the robot game.
During our 2017 season, we won the Inspire Award (top award given at a competition) at North Super Regionals. From there we went on to compete at the World Championship in St. Louis, where we were the Fourth-Seed Alliance Captain, and made it to the semi-finals. In 2018 we competed in Relic Recovery; we went on to win the Connect Award (professional connections) at the Detroit World Championship. In 2019 (Rover Ruckus), we once again made it to Worlds and were finalists for the Connect Award. In 2020, we competed in Skystone and won the Inspire Award (top award) at IL state. Unfortunately, we did not compete at the World Championship due to Covid. We competed virtually in Ultimate Goal in 2021 where we won the Inspire Award at IL State. Last year in 2022, we competed in Freight Frenzy and won the Connect Award (professional connections) at IL State.
Our mission statement is: "To learn all we should, share what we know, and mentor whom we can. We want to glorify God, and in doing so, leave a legacy beyond our own FTC experience."
Team Verse
1 Peter 3:15
But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.
Titus 2:7-8a
Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned.
Gracious Professionalism is important to all teams of FIRST®.
We created a team Code of Ethics to better define what Gracious Professionalism means to our team.
Our Code of Ethics:
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
What does this mean to our team?
Team members are patient and kind. They do not envy others’ success, nor do they boast about their own; they are not arrogant.
They are not rude, self-seeking, or easily angered, but are willing to forgive and work with others despite unexpected challenges.
Such a team does not take delight when an opposing alliance’s robot malfunctions, but rejoices with other teams’ successes.
They are always willing to help, always ready to trust, always hoping for success, always working to the best of their ability.
Team members don’t fail one another. Love never fails.
This is what Gracious Professionalism means to our team.