This was our first year participating in the FIRST Robotics Competition and here are some of the lessons we learned.
“As a new member I have not only learned the fundamentals of robotics and engineering but I was also able to improve my leadership, communication, and teamwork skills. I learned that it's important to network and talk to other teams. Our big brother team, #3005 Robochargers, guided us along the way and members from other teams helped our programming team. It was interesting seeing the interactions between the teams and making new friends. At the most recent FRC team, we met a team from Brazil and it was just an amazing experience seeing other people from around the world having the same interest in robotics and becoming friends with them. With FRC, I had to overcome my introversion in order to communicate with other teams and judges. I also learned that teamwork is absolutely essential and that our team, Thunderchicks, is especially experienced in that area due to our sisterhood bond. Since it was our first year our school has ever been a part of FRC, we struggled and failed so much, but it isn't about the failure we encountered, it's how we reacted to it. We had to analyze, improvise, and overcome many obstacles. This, however, allowed our team to be stronger than ever and showed us that there is always room for improvement.”
“I have learned that everything is a learning process. You can make many mistakes during this time, but you can always learn from them. It is okay t mess up. You take those lessons and you use them for next year.”
“I learned that working together and making sure that your whole team knows what's going on with the robot is important, especially how it works and what it does.”
“It's not as intimidating as one would expect. A lot of the time many other teams understand that it's your first time doing it so they are willing to help you out if you need it. Also, once you learn more about what to do, it's not as bad. It's a learning experience but it gets better once you're learning and at the competition.”
“This year I’ve learned that it’s okay to not be the best. I think future rookie teams should know that it’s okay to not be perfect because as long as you give it your all, you’ll succeed.”
“As a new member to the Robotics Club this year, I was able to learn many things. Through the FRC competition, I was able to learn about a new program where I could see more visuals in order to be able to program the robot. Future new teams should meet with their mentors constantly in order to be able to build their robot well and learn everything there is to learn about FRC in order be prepared for competition.”
“Don't be afraid of asking other teams for help, everyone is very nice and willing to help. Use your time wisely, the six weeks are over before you know it. Having a second chassis to practice on while your robot is bagged up is very helpful and necessary.”
“I learned that you have to help each other. This is a team effort and we all have to see each other. Even with other teams, we have to make sure everyone is having a good time.”
“I learned how to work as a team and that it is helpful to ask advice from other teams. Also, staying up to date really makes a difference on how good our robots works and looks. Any help is available makes a big difference and everything is appreciated.”
“Since websites are emphasized more in FRC, I learned that we should keep a record of what we accomplished on our team so we can later put that information on our website. I saw that it was difficult to organize our website since we did not know the exact date we attended an event or the exact title of an award we won.”