Update on Robotics Teams, Competitions and Wins

In the inaugural edition of the FLATE Focus for 2015 we brought you a story about various robotics competitions that were happening across the Florida this spring, including special mention of Squirtle Squad Scholars—an ‘all girls’

FIRST Lego League robotics team that FLATE mentored. This month we would like to give a special shout-out to the team, who following the qualifying tournaments in January, have advanced to the state championships for FIRST Lego League robotics competitions. The All Girls team comprising of third, fourth and fifth graders, were among the top 48 teams out of 589 in Florida, and will be competing for a bid to win the World Championships to be held in St. Louis, MI. “Only one team from Florida can advance to the next level, and the girls want to be that team” said Desh Bagley, FLATE’s outreach manager. who also served as the team’s lead mentor.

Bagley is ecstatic about the win/progress thus far. Currently the Squirtle Squad Scholars are fine-tuning their robot and programming skills with their robot set to score 400 points. You can read about the challenge and how the team is preparing for upcoming competitions in the January edition of the FLATE Focus. You can help the team in their market survey by filling out an anonymous survey at  http://tinyurl.com/ovf34pg. More information can also be found at:  http://flrobotics.org/tournaments/TournamentAssignments.htm and

http://flrobotics.org/tournaments/Schedule.htm.

In other news round-up, the FRC 1369 Minotaur Team at Middleton High School stood second at the

Photo Courtesy: http://www.frc1369minotaur.com

Georgia Southern Regional Conference. The next regional tournament is in Orlando. The FTC Masquerade from Middleton High School also took second place in the Florida FTC Championship and will compete in the Southeast FTC Super Regional in San Antonio on March 13-14. We wish the Minotaur and the Masquerade teams the best of luck for another win. 

The Trinity Dragons VEX robotics team from Trinity Homeschool Academy also qualified for World Championships this year. The team comprised of four homeschooled students are located in Tampa and have had several accomplishments this year.  For more information visit the team's Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/trinitydragons/?pnref=lhc, or contact Tonya Walters at tonyawalters@me.com.