Two FIRST Tech Challenge teams at Athens Renaissance School will find themselves competing at the FTC Alabama Championship at New Century Technology High School in Huntsville on March 4.

“I’m feeling good about it! We have a 6th grade team and a 7th-8th grade team. Technically, FTC is for students in grades 7-12, and many teams competing with us are high school teams,” collaborative teacher Taylor Whisenant said. “My students have worked really hard and are working to get their robots ready for this competition. We have several meetings this month to finish up the robot building and programming, and we have a full FTC field in our workspace at ARS to practice and test on before the big day.”

Whisenant — who is also the FIRST Lego League Program Delivery Partner for FIRST in Alabama — spent the weekend coordinating a FLL Qualifier in Fort Payne. This was the fourth such event after coordinating the Hampton Cove Middle School STEM, UAH Society of Women Engineers, and Port City qualifiers the previous weekends.

“As the PDP, my role with Qualifiers is securing venues and event hosts and then providing whatever level of support they need to make the event happen while following FIRST’s global standards for events (e.g., robot performance matches and judging sessions procedures),” Whisenant explained. “At some events, I am just there to make sure everything runs smoothly, and then sometimes I actually fill key volunteer roles. For example, at UAH I was the Judge Advisor for the event.”

The ARS teams did not compete in these events but are preparing for the K-12 robotics showcase on the Renaissance campus on April 24.

The Limestone County’s FIRST Robotics middle school team, known as the Skyrockets, participated in the Jan. 21 qualifier and placed ninth out of 17 in the robot game portion of the competition.

Members of the group include: Wesley Wasserburger, Darrell Higgins, Joshua Browning, Maggie Zirbel, Bryant Gray, Bryson Haney. Others in attendance included David Browning (mentor), Johnathon Browning (youth mentor), Chloe Smith(youth mentor), Anna Page Hammons (youth mentor), Luke Durham (youth mentor), Ronald Christ (Limestone County School Board), and Pam Fowler (Skyrockets coach).

April contains more than one robotics event for Whisenant and the Renaissance FRC team, as well as the Limestone County Career Technical Center FRC team. The ARS and LCCTC high school robotics teams will compete at the FRC Rocket City Regional April 5 through 8. The four ARS FLL Explore Teams will compete at the Alabama FLL Explore Festival on April 8, held at the FRC Rocket City Regional competition).

“As the PDP, I am running the Alabama FLL Explore Festival at the VBC on April 8. FLL Explore is for grades K-4, and their event is pretty cool because we host it during the high school competition FIRST Robotics Competition Rocket City Regional,” Whisenant said. “High school teams from all over the country, as well as Brazil and Mexico, will be competing there [at the Rocket City Regional].”

With the season in full swing, check back with The News Courier for updates on local robotics efforts.