Recently Athens Renaissance School’s 6th, 7th, and 8th grade FIRST Tech Challenge teams competed at the FIRST in Alabama Championship. 

“I would say that the FTC Championship went well for us,” Taylor Whisenant said. “We did not have high performing robots, but we learned so much from competing alongside middle and high school teams from eight states. We now have a lot of ideas of how to improve our teams moving forward.”

Whisenant says the teams worked hard all day. 

“Overall, our students had great attitudes and worked hard, alongside middle and high school teams from Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas, Arkansas, Maryland, Virginia, and Georgia,” Whisenant said. “Our teams worked hard all day at making robot repairs and adjustments and strategizing with other teams for their matches. We have a lot of opportunities to improve for next season.”

She went on to say, “next year, we hope to finish our robots sooner to give our robot drivers more time to practice. We also want to expand our community outreach efforts as a program next year.”

The competition allowed Whisenant’s teams to learn from “model teams.” 

“I told my teams that I had two expectations for the event. I wanted them to learn and to have fun. I think that they were pretty successful at both expectations. These events can be difficult to explain to others; you really have to experience them,” Whisenant said. 

She went on to say, “they got to see how other teams built different robots to play the same game, and they got to learn a host of skills from teams with more experience. I hope this opportunity encourages my students to continue to participate in FIRST Tech Challenge next year or on the FIRST Robotics Competition team at ARS for high school students.”