It's time to hit the ground running–welcome to week one of the Team 2506 Saber Robotics build season!

Welcome to the 2018 season of FIRST Robotics. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics is a program created by Dean Kamen to encourage students to explore different areas of engineering and business and promote teamwork and companionship within the team. Over 3,000 teams worldwide participate in the challenge, which changes each year. Teams create and build a robot from scratch using skills that are taught by mentors that volunteer their time. The Franklin Sabers Robotics Team, Team 2506, was created 11 years ago. Last year, we won the prestigious Team Spirit Award that celebrates our extraordinary enthusiasm and spirit through exceptional partnership and teamwork, furthering the objectives of the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) program. This year, 2506 has around 50 members. We as a team plan to attend two regional competitions, the Wisconsin Regional in Milwaukee and the Seven Rivers Regional in La Crosse, in addition to going to Hamilton High School for a Mini Regional.

The challenge for this year is called Power Up. By carrying power cubes to areas called switches or scales and keeping those areas under the control of your three-team alliance, you earn points. Power cubes can be exchanged for power-ups, which give you the potential to get ahead of the other alliance by working together. At the end of the game, the robots have to climb at least 1 foot off the ground. The alliance with the highest points wins the game. Click here to see more details. Currently, our team is brainstorming ideas and creating deadlines for projects so the process of constructing goes smoothly. As of now, the incipient stages of robot construction have begun.

Feel free to come visit our team meetings, from January 6th to February 20th, held Mondays-Thursdays from 6-9 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to around 3:30 p.m. One way parents and/or guardians can be involved is by volunteering during these regional competitions. Assisting meetings as a mentor and teaching the students about their area of expertise is also helpful, though no former or recent experience is needed to chaperone the students. Please contact Coach Guderyon at margaret.guderyon@franklinsabers.org prior to your visit to talk about the finer details.