Our Busy Summer
Although school ended in June, and the FRC season was over in April, the SOTAbots never stop. Here is what the SOTAbots were up to this summer!
Over the course of 6 weeks, various members of the SOTAbots volunteered in the Environmental
Learning Center (ELC), leading part of a summer program for underprivileged children called Xplore. Our volunteers help educate young learners in the art of Robotics, teaching them various related subjects such as design, programming, and engineering. Over the course of a week, each group of children would independently create their own, functioning robot, which they would then program to complete various challenges.
The SOTAbots also had the pleasure of bringing FLL robots to the Proctor Farmers market, for kids of all ages to play with. Our team members had fun connecting with the community, running into mentors, enjoying the market food, petting dogs, and of course, playing with our robots.
We had the honor of visiting SOTAbots alumna Jillian Kelley’s preschool. Our team members brought our FRC robot to show off to the preschoolers, aged between 2 and 6. The young kids were delighted to see our machine pick up power cubes and place them in various locations.
The same day as the preschool visit, we took a trip to one of our gracious sponsors, Aluminum and Bronze manufacturers. We displayed our FRC robot and profusely thanked them for their support.
Alongside other FRC teams, we demoed our FRC bot at the Museum of flight on their Aviation day. While learning about airplanes and how they work, people were able to learn about robots and how those work. We spread the reaches of FIRST to all kinds of people from all sorts of backgrounds, and sparked interest in people from all across the state. Those who came to learn about aviation also ended up going home with a bad case of robot fever.
The SOTAbots made the trek all the way up to Edmonds, where we participated in the community event Taste Edmonds. Team members drove our FRC bot and showed kids how to play with our FLL bots. People of all ages were fascinated with our bots, big and small. Team members on breaks also enjoyed trying the different foods and watching performances on stage.
Last weekend, the SOTAbots went up to the Seattle Christian School (home of team 5803, Apex Robotics) to participate in an offseason competition called Peak Performance. Teams from Washington, Oregon and Idaho all came together to compete in a one day competition. After adjusting to a new drive team, the SOTAbots pulled ahead and ended up as the 6th alliance captain. We partnered with team 2930, the Sonic Squirrels and team 1778, Chill Out. We worked hard as a team, but ended up falling to the champion team, headed by team 1983, Skunkworks Robotics.
With school coming up soon, the SOTAbots are excited to welcome new members into the team, and get back into the swing of things. We are thankful for our students, parents, sponsors, and mentors for their continual support of the team, and here's to a fun filled summer!