FIRTS Robotics is a program that has been around since 1992, but only in recent years has it become more known throughout the world. The Blessed Sacrament School has been a part of FIRST robotics for four years, but this year is the first that the team has won an invitation to compete at the world championships. It was no easy journey to worlds, the BSS robotics team had to first compete in the provincial match held in Red Deer early January where we came across many glitches and setbacks. We experienced technical trouble in the competition during the round robins, but as the day progressed we worked out the kinks. We ended up winning second place in the provincial finals. How did we end up going to worlds you ask? Gracious professionalism! See, the motto of FIRST robotics is gracious professionalism which means that teams are not just judged on how well they perform in the competition, but they are judged off the playing field as well. FIRST robotics promotes that teams have spirit and demonstrate good teamwork not only among their own team, but the teams they compete against as well. The BSS robotics team did our best to bring as much effort as we could and it paid off in the end. We ended up winning the Inspire Award. The Inspire Award is what enabled our team to go to worlds. The Inspire Award is an award that is given to the best all around team who not only tries their best in competition, but outside the competition as well. The judges base the award on how well students do in their interviews as well as the quality of their log book where students keep reference of their journey and of course how well the team exhibits gracious professionalism. It is an honour to receive such an award. After the regional match in Red Deer our team was able to go back home and begin to prepare for worlds. We learned a lot from the competition and had a bunch of new ideas on how to improve our robot. We worked on a new design focusing on making it smaller and more efficient. After a couple months, our new design was complete and it was a success. Before we went to worlds, we were invited to NAIT to set up an exhibit there where the FIRST Lego league robotics competition was being held. Basically, we got to promote the next league of robotics for the younger children. We were also invited back to Red Deer where we were honoured with being a part of the Science Happens Here show. We had a brief video shown of us as well as were invited on stage to show off our robot. The show was being hosted by Gran Imahara and Tory Belleci from the Mythbusters and we were very lucky to have a meet and greet with them as well. We were very grateful to be a part in such an amazing opportunity.
As for worlds, six of the nine members were able to make the trip. The students who went to worlds were Kalli Frissell, Chris Watson, Jake Charlebois, Ryan MacPhail, Danielle Anderson, and Alix McDonald. We were accompanied by our chaperones Renee DeAbreu, Brian Skinner and Dr Ron Watson. Our teammates that did not attend but are still a huge reason why we made it to worlds are Jeff Kaye, Molly Norris, Cody Frey and our coach Mr Kohle. Over Easter Break, we had prepared everything to go and then four days before we left, the St Louis airport was hit by a tornado miraculously there were no deaths. At first, flights were cancelled and there was a chance we would not be able to make it, but luckily the people of St Louis were quick to repair the area in time for us to fly out on Tuesday, April 26. The robotics competition was being held at the Edward Jones Dome in St Louis. Our team has never been to worlds before so just to be at the competition was an amazing experience for us. There were so many different teams with so many different ideas. Some teams had not only dressed themselves up in costume, but they decorated their booths as well, some teams even had decorative lights on their robots! Our team faired pretty well in the competition, we came in 24 out of 64 in our division. We were all very proud of our performance in the competition, especially for our first year. Going to worlds was an amazing learning experience for our team. We now know what to expect if we ever return again. We also got to see other ideas people came up with to build their own robots. After being to worlds, we emerged with a better understanding of how the competition itself works and it gives our team the experience to try and advance further in years to come. Going to worlds was an amazing opportunity that we are all very grateful to be a part of. As an aside, we would also like to thank our sponsors who played a huge role in our journey to worlds: Knights of Columbus, Kinsmen Club, the MD of Wainwright and the Blessed Sacrament School Board.
Thanks for the Support
Blessed Sacrament Robotics team would like the following for their donations to the team's trip to St Louis for the World Championship 2011.
East Central Alberta Catholic School Board
Knights of Columbus
MD of Wainwright
Kinsmen Club of Wainwright
and all those who purchased Mom's Pantry to support us.
Meeting Mythbusters
Since winning the Inspire Award at Red Deer College in Jan 2011, the robotics team demonstrated their robots to the First Lego League at NAIT in Jan 2011 and they met the Mythbusters Tory Belleci and Grant Imahara on stage in March 2011.
Learning to Program RobotC
Click on the image to download the software to program the virtual robots on Planet H99.
In the Media
I.Am.First - Science is Rock and Roll
Will.i.am produced a video for ABC tv to promote FIRST Robotics. It included clips from World Championship along with concert clips from the Black Eye Peas.
BSS Thunder at World Championships in St Louis 2011
BSS Thunder Robotics In Alberta Science Promotional Video
BSS Thunder Robotics go to St Louis World Championships
