FIRST® Team 1334 OTHS Robotics started in 2003 and has been a hit with students ever since. We attract male and female students with many interests, and membership averages about 40 students each year.
At FIRST Team 1334, we have worked hard to forge strong partnerships with our mentor and sponsor organizations and several sponsors have provided mentors to the team and offered summer employment to our team members. An important part of the learning experience of FIRST is meeting local industry professionals who help guide us through the various tasks we must accomplish in a supportive environment using problem-solving methods that help us learn with guidance. We are extremely grateful for their continued support.
The FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC®) challenges high school-aged teams of students and their mentors to solve a common problem in a six-week timeframe using a standard "kit of parts" and a common set of rules. Teams build robots from the parts and enter them in a series of competitions in a high energy, sports-like setting. We like to think of it as "sports for the mind".
The FRC competition has grown to over 2,000 teams competing in 58 regional and district events worldwide. Locally, competitions are held at the University of Waterloo and the Hershey Centre, Mississauga. The Championship will be held for the FIRST time this year at the Edward Jones Dome, St. Louis, Missouri, where 300 teams from all over the world will compete. It is amazing to witness these thousands of high school students competing with the attitude that differentiates FIRST from other types of competitive teams, Gracious Professionalism™ and Coopertition™. Many FRC® participants will also volunteer at the concurrent FIRST® LEGO® League World Championships for elementary school-aged children from around the world.
A FIRST team is like a microcosm of the real world. It takes many people with a variety of strengths and skills to ensure all the parts of the team come together to ultimately produce the product. FIRST redefines winning for these students. Teams are rewarded for excellence in design, demonstrated team spirit, gracious professionalism, creativity, teamwork, maturity and ability to overcome obstacles. Scoring the most points is a secondary goal. In FIRST, winning means building partnerships that last.
