EWSD students will compete in the upcoming FIRST Robotics Competition District Event at the University of Vermont. This is the culminating level of the FIRST program. Several EWSD students will be competing on the regional team Green Mountain Robotics which they helped found three years ago. This work represents an astonishing 300-400 hours of STEM engagement per student, interfacing with mentors from local tech companies and precision manufacturers, and managing their team as a startup enterprise.
Vermont's Student Robotics Community Comes of Age (Seven Days)
Volunteers and teachers have made EWSD one of the premier robotics programs in Vermont, even gaining recent national attention for our 4-8 programs. For more information, visit firstinvermont.org.
Here are the recent Robotics Team updates:
FLL (FIRST LEGO League) State Championships (grades 4-8) were held at GlobalFoundries. 32 teams (700 people) including six teams from EMS, Westford, and the Essex community were in attendance, as were VIPs from state government and area businesses. This is youth STEM engagement at its most fun!
FTC (FIRST Tech Challenge) State Championships (grades 7-12), sponsored by UVM and 4-H showcased some amazing engineering talent from our District. Of 22 teams statewide, Westford's grade 7-8th Trash Pandas made it through 32 rounds of qualifiers with an undefeated record and became the number one seed going into finals. Close behind was EHS's HiveMind Robotics, which eventually went on to win the Think Award for its fully CAD-designed and student-machined robot design. They will be advancing to the New England Premier Event in April.
Our FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition) regional team just competed in their first district event in Lewiston, ME. Green Mountain Robotics (three EWDS students) had a spectacular event, reaching the semi-final robot game rounds and taking home the Engineering Inspiration Award, the second highest honor awarded (besting the current world's highest ranked team!).