San Marin High School - FIRST Robotics

LINK: FIRST Robotics Competition | FIRST (firstinspires.org)

Being a FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team, each year our team focuses our efforts around. Their website advertises, "Under strict rules, limited time and resources, teams of students are challenged to raise funds, design a team "brand," hone teamwork skills, and build and program industrial-size robots to play a difficult field game against like-minded competitors." and that's exactly what we do.

How does this work?

There are thousands of FRC teams; in fact, there are not only teams in our state, but all throughout the country and world! Each year we work to build our teams, knowledge, and skill to prepare us to build the robot. This robot is built to complete tasks such as climbing, shooting balls, transporting, and so much more. Then we take our robot to regionals, then hopefully further.

What Our Year Looks Like:

Pre-Build Season:

September

Recruiting and Reorganizing

Our year starts in September after a summer break and a few weeks before school starts. We begin our year welcoming any new members who want to join our team. This is also when our club holds elections for positions.

October

Testing the Waters

Throughout October, we encourage our team members to try every new thing they can, this way they can find something that they are passionate and excited to do. Sometimes people end up doing something that's the complete opposite of what they expected!

November

Honing In

By November, we begin to prepare for build season. This is when we start strategy, practice for competition, critical thinking, and problem solving. By now, different groups are able to focus on different things.

December

Countdown!!

We only get to meet twice in December due to Finals and Holidays, but right when we get into the new year, we get Kickoff!

Build Season:

KICKOFF DAY!

Build season starts the second weekend of the year at 10am for us. This is when we get the video that describes the competition, we get our competition kits, and start planning for the year.

January

Prototyping

Prototyping is the first chance that we get to use our newly developed skills. We start testing, designing, and exploring options for this year's competition.

February

Halfway!

By February we are halfway through build season! By now we are finalizing separate parts of the robot to put together into one.

March

Time's up!

In March, Regionals start, and our work is presented to everyone!

Competition

The moment we've all been waiting for...

We attend two regional competitions each build season with the same robot. At each competition we face anyone who registered to compete in the region, this meant that we met people and made friends with people from all over the world like Istanbul, Turkey and Sao Paulo, Brazil to the friends and networking in the East Bay and throughout Silicon Valley. The competitions range over 3 days, a Practice Day, Qualifying, then Regional Finals. Overall, competitions are an exhaustive, bonding, excitement, and such a fun experience. These competitions are field trips and even though we make daily trips to San Francisco, we stay in Davis for two nights!

One More Thing...

April - May

FIRST encourages outreach, something to show how our team can affect others. Interacting and being a part of communities, helping others, and creating good habits because FRC is more than just a competition. One of our annual efforts to connect with the community is the Bay Area Science Fair!