Last week, the Athens Renaissance robotics team went to Houston for the FIRST Robotics Championship.

The FIRST Championship was an international event for students in grades K-12. It was an annual celebration of STEM preparing students for their futures in science, technology, engineering and math.

Thousands of students gathered at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston from April 20-23, to compete alongside and against each other in various events.

“The Athens Renaissance FIRST Robotics Competition Team, Renaissance Robotics, qualified for this event by winning the Rookie All Star Award at the 2022 Rocket City Regional April 7-9,” said Taylor Whisenant, K-6 Collaborative Teacher at Athens Renaissance School.

The high school portion of the event featured 454 teams divided across six divisions. Athens Renaissance was in the Carver Division and ranked 12th out of 75 teams, earning them the Highest Rookie Seed Award.

Athens Renaissance was the highest ranked team from Alabama at the event and the highest ranked rookie team out of all six divisions.