Our Season
Robot
Similar to previous years, this year our team has made two identical robots, our competition robot is named ‘Bearitone’, and our Practice robot is named ‘Play Bear Carti’. Our robot was designed with four main features; Our Amp arm, which allows our robot to collect from the Amp and score in the trap, our Collector, which feeds notes from the ground into our shooter, which can launch notes at several different levels and up to 20 feet a second, and our claws, which allow our robot to climb onto the chains hanging from the stage. For more information on how our robot was designed and created, look on our team’s social media accounts for updates and reflections.
Competitions
This year, we competed at Oregon State Fairgrounds, Bonney Lake, and Sammamish District events, where we qualified for the 2024 PNW District Championships. At DCMP, we competed in the playoffs as the Captain of Alliance 1 and were eliminated in the Double Elimination Bracket (Round 3). We qualified for the World Championship in Houston Texas, in the Hopper Division, we competed in the playoffs as the Captain of Alliance 8 and were eliminated in the Double Elimination Bracket (Round 5).
Offseason
After our team got back from Houston, new student leaders and executives were chosen, plans for outreach events were made, and we have chosen to attend three offseason competitions! We will be playing at Chezy Champs in September, as well as another offseason event where another team will make an appearance. Our offseason team, Spare Metal, consists of members from the Back-up Drive Team and members practicing for Girl’s Generation, and we are excited to announce the team’s return. As previously mentioned, we will be hosting our 12th annual WA Girl’s Generation, October 12th-13th. For more information about this event, view our “Camps and Events” page.
Awards
Our team is proud to say that we have received an award at every competition this year! We received the Creativity Award sponsored by Rockwell Automation at Oregon State Fairgrounds, the Excellence in Engineering Award at both Bonney Lake and Sammamish, soon followed by the Industrial Design Award sponsored by General Motors at the PNW District Championship, and finally the Quality Award at the FIRST World Championship. This was our first time ever winning a judged award at the World Championship, and our five engineering awards joined our three winning banners to conclude one of our most successful seasons yet.
Summer Camps
Throughout July and the beginning of August, our team hosted our 11th annual Summer Camps! We had around 300 children in grades 1-9 attend nine different camps, including two weeks of a student-created FTC-inspired camp (Flag Frenzy), two weeks of FIRST Lego League camps, as well as five other camps focused on specific skills or genres; 3D Printing, Coding Camp, Electronics Camp, Design Camp, and Bear Metal Media Camp. Our team was happy to provide camps that both educate students and teach them crucial teamwork and social skills, preparing the next generation of future FIRST members and STEAM enthusiasts.