I’m delighted to share with you the stories of three stellar FIRST teams set to compete in the championship in Atlanta next week! I had the opportunity to ask the teams a few questions, check ’em out!
FIRST Tech Challenge Team 25: Team Rock N Roll Robots
Rock N Roll Robots is a Girl Scout robotics team from the Los Angeles area. Started in 2007, they started out behind but quickly gained ground to win the Inspire Award and place second in the Atlanta championship.
Becky Stern: Why are you excited to bring your team to FIRST this year?
Salia, age 17: FIRST is just a great program, it gives us an opportunity and a medium to practice and expand our engineering skills as well as emphasizes team work, problem solving, and gracious professionalism; no matter what field you’re going into you will learn something useful through FIRST, plus it’s fun!
Taylor, age 18: FIRST is a wonderful, amazing program and it has provided amazing opportunities for kids and teenagers all over the world. But, it really needs to see more girls in the organization. program. Because our team is composed of all Girl Scouts, we’re able to spread the word of FIRST to all the Girl Scouts in our community. Hopefully, by setting a good example, other scouts will want to join future teams and have the same amazing experiences we have!
Victoria, age 16: I am excited to bring my team to FIRST this year because it’s a learning process that benefits everyone around us. Not only do the students learn new and exiting things that they didn’t know the previous year, mentors get to help teach and learn as well. Also, we build the community with fundraisers and demonstrations that not only help bond the parents but help the community understand who we are.
Becky: What’s been the most rewarding experience in the program so far?
Salia: Definitely the World Championship, it is a great conclusion to a FIRST competition season. Everyone has tons of spirit, gracious professionalism and really good robots, so it’s super fun to compete. You also get to meet tons of people and learn about all the divisions of FIRST.
Taylor: One of the most rewarding experiences for me so far is just being able to watch what you’ve created do exactly what you intended it to do. It brings about a feeling of accomplishment that I have yet to feel doing any other activity. Building a robot sounds difficult in itself (because it is) not to mention designing, programming, testing and constantly fixing the robot. When it works (well, preferably), it’s one of the best feelings in the world.
Becky: What makes your team awesome/special?
Salia: We not only build robots but host events to help other girls learn that engineering and science are for everyone, plus as girls we bring a whole different type of spirit and accessories, but we don’t wear pink, we rock teal, because we are the ROCK N’ ROLL ROBOTS!
Look out for two more team spotlights coming up later today!
10 thoughts on “FIRST Championship team spotlight: Rock N Roll Robots”
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Great job on this, Becky. Thanks.
>Girl Scouts robotics team
I LOVE living in the future!
Anyone who finds this interesting should get on the FIRST website, and find a local competition to volunteer with. You can coach teams of course, if you have a lot of time available, but they also need “mentors”, who are community members who come by and give moral support to teams, teach them how to use a piece of software, generally help out, etc., as well as judges for competitions.
Judging in a competition does NOT require experience with robotics (there are many aspects to FIRST beyond just the technical components of the robot itself), takes just one day of your time, and is a LOT of fun. I know people who fly at their own expense across the country just so they can keep judging their hometown’s competitions.
They always need more help, and it is a great and fun way to give your support.
Great info, thanks Sam!
I’m a teacher-mentor for Team 2789 (Go Techsplosion!) and even though I’m leaving my teaching position, my team has invited me to stick around as mentor and Pit Manager.
The FIRST culture is super fantastic- it’s all about helping each other to be the best competitor possible and bring other teams up to your level. I love it.
When you write about the other FIRST teams, make sure you include their number- that’s how all the teams identify each other.
Done and done, thanks for the suggestion!