Page 8 - June 2019 final online

ROBOTICS TAKEOVER

By Zohreh Khosknamak

Watergate at Landmark’s FIRST and testing solutions using Lego kits
Lego League (FLL) Junior Robotics designed for robotics building. For
Club, also known as the Tech Troop- the 2018-2019 season, FIRST drew
ers, has been pretty busy since 2019 615,000+ students from 100 coun-
began. The Tech Troopers competed tries and 250,000+ mentor, coaches,
against several teams in two different judges, and volunteers globally per
competitions in the DMV, winning FirstInspire.org. , the official website
recognitions in at least one category for FIRST. So, yes, it does involve
each time! using Legos—and motors, sensors,
coding, and much more.
What’s a FIRST Lego League?
Does it have to do with building with Who are the Tech Troopers?
the plastic toy blocks that we hate to The Tech Troopers are WAL’s first
love, especially when you step on a FLL Junior Robotics Club. The team
wayward piece? Well, not quite. formed in 2018 and has three boys T.C. Williams Robotics helped mentor the
FIRST is an acronym meaning For and three girls. They had help though Jr. FIRST Lego League team.
Inspiration & Recognition of Science from dedicated parents and their All Photos: Zohreh Khosknamak
& Technology. It was founded in mentors, the T.C. William Titans
1989 as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit First Robotics Team. Patent and Trade Office in Alexan-
public charity whose purpose is to dria. The team won an award for
inspire young people's interest and Over the course of the season, each Movement. They received praise
participation in science and technolo- team member gained knowledge from the judges for the great design
gy, with the hope that they then pur- about the moon, engineering, space and movement of the different com-
sue education and career opportuni- and problem solving while learning ponents in the moon based built.
ties in STEM fields. The program to display gracious professionalism,
includes FIRST Lego League Jr. the organization’s motto. They also The second stop for WAL’s Junior
(Grades K – 4), FIRST Lego League learned research, presentation, fact- Robotics Club was Oxon Hill High
(Grades 4 – 8), FIRST Tech Chal- checking, and reporting skills as they School in Maryland for another expo
lenge (Grades 7 – 12), and FIRST worked as a team to write stories in March. This event took place on
Robotics Competition (Grades 9 to about the moon—along with prob- the sidelines of the regional FIRST
12). lems while living there. Robotics Competition where the T.C.
Williams FIRST Robotics team com-
The Tech Troopers met peted. Of course, the Tech Troopers
many amazing people cheered them on. At noon, all the
during this journey. FLL Junior teams in attendance went
They’ve met NASA on a parade through the competition
scientists at the different arena. They were happy to hear the
events they attended and loud cheers from the T.C. Williams
even did a videoconfer- students and their families when the
ence with a scientist group’s name was called. I think our
working on food pro- team got the loudest cheers, but I
duction in zero gravity! digress. Thanks Titans FIRST Robot-
Tech Troopers visited ics Team and your loved ones. You
the T.C. Williams Plan- rock. Totally. By the way, WAL’s
etarium and saw just Tech Troopers won the Complexity
how big outer space is. and Decoration award for their moon
The Tech Troopers are ready for competition!
base, getting accolades from the
Competition Recognition judges for their imaginative and ex-
Each season, teams are given a chal- The Tech Trooper’s first stop was at cellent design work.
lenge to overcome through creating an expo held in February at the U.S.

Page 8 Wheel June 2019