Middle School Robotics Club Competes in FIRST Tech Challenge

Middle School Robotics Club Competes in FIRST Tech Challenge

The Warwick Middle School Robotics Club competed in head-to-head robotics challenges this school year as part of the FIRST Tech Challenge, a multi-state robotics program intended to prepare students for the future through advancing STEM education.

The FIRST Tech Challenge was funded by Warwick Education Foundation and gave 11 Warwick Middle School students the opportunity to explore STEM engineering principles by designing, building, and programming their own robot—who they named ‘Charlie the Pretzel Bot.’

Charlie’s special skill? Picking up and delivering soft pretzels.

Thanks to this WEF grant, the robotics club was able to build and code Charlie the Pretzel Bot,, acquire a team toolbox, compete in two robotics competitions, and purchase t-shirts for team spirit.

“I learned a lot about designing and creating, and I am now looking forward to getting a 3D printer entirely because of this,” a robotics club student said.

The challenge gave students the opportunity to work collaboratively with their club members. Not only did the students work together to build Charlie, they recruited members during the middle school club fair, fundraised to earn money for robotics supplies, planned for competitions, and more.

After all the hard work of building and coding Charlie was complete, students put their robot-building skills to the test and competed against other robotics clubs across the country.

Warwick’s Robotics Club also taught students transferable skills such as creativity, problem solving, and what many teachers call ‘gracious professionalism.’

“You can really learn anything in Robotics Club,” said Ms. Brower, Warwick Robotics Club mentor. “Eleven students with different personalities, some ready to be leaders and some shyer students, learned that there’s space for them in the club.”

At the end of the program, the students proudly won the judges award for team spirit and perseverance.

“Thank you so much to the Warwick Education Foundation,” Ms. Brower said. “This grant gave our students the opportunity to see themselves as more than just singular students in middle school. During their time in the club students were collaborators, professionals, and engineers imagining a future beyond their time at Warwick. This experience will have a lasting impact”