Robotics Team Connects to Win at Phoenixville Sat. 2/18

Congratulations to the entire Robotics team for winning the 'Connect' Award and 6th overall out of 24 teams this past Saturday 2/18 at the Central PA Qualifier Tournament for the upcoming First Robotic's FTC State Championship. Our robot performed with a personal best with over 70 points in one match. Eric Smalls(Senior), Cevan Noell(Junior) and Joseph Capizzi (Freshman) made the car-pool trek out to Phoenixville, PA since expected bus funding fell through this past week. This award comes after winning the 'Think' award for best design and qualifying for the State Championship at a tournament earlier this season at West Philly HS. The team unnecessarily qualified for States again with an even more competitive field this time at Phoenixville HS.

Thanks for the school's support of our LED lightbulb and bake sale fundraising efforts, website, blog and social networking sites.  The attendance of family and mentoring engineer support from NAVSEA at the West Philly and Phoenixville events helps show how much you prioritize our students' involvement in STEM education.  The First Tech Challenge(FTC) 'Connect' award is given to the team that most connected with their local community and the engineering community: "A true FIRST team is more than a sum of its parts, and recognizes that their schools and communities play an essential part to their success. The recipient of this award is recognized for helping the community understand FIRST, the FIRST Tech Challenge, and the team itself. The team that wins this award is aggressively reaching out to engineers and exploring the opportunities available in the world of engineering, science and technology. In addition, this team has a clear fundraising goal and plan to achieve that goal."  Please keep up your fund-raising support, tell your friends, 'like us' on Facebook, then save energy through buying and using our LED Light Bulbs.

The team received a small grant from the FISH Foundation for writing essays regarding their involvement in the First Tech Challenge robotics season, thanks to students Eric Smalls, Brandon Brinson and Andrea Flemings.  We also need to thank Kendrick Davis and his STEM office with the School District of Philadelphia and their sponsorship of the FTC teams and tournaments this entire school year.  The First Tech Challenge Robotics season allows our students to hone their skills over multiple events rather than focusing on one annual event.

Saturday, we also met a former E&S alum of the first graduating class, Mr. Giordano. He is now currently a math teacher at Phoenixville HS and the head of their robotics club, RoboWorks.