CONGRATULATIONS SENIORS Roboticsteamsbringhomeworldtitles

This article was published originally on April 30, 2022.

St. Vrain Valley Schoolssponsored Up-A-Creek Robotics teams recently won world championships in two different FIRST robotics competitions in Houston.

The win by the Up-ACreek FIRST Robotics Challenge team, composed of 75 high school students from across the school district, marked the first time Colorado team won a world championship at the competition.

This also was the first time in FIRST’s history that one organization won both events in a single

HADDAD frompage1 through our 1:1 technology initiative and nationally recognized Learning Technology Plan. They have been highly engaged in their school communities and extended learning beyond the school day through the arts, music, athletics, advanced career and technology programs, and other quality co-curricular activities. Through all of this, they have also become highly engaged and caring citizens who remain focused on building stronger, healthier communities and advancing our society.

Our graduates enrolled in a record number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and concurrent enrollment col- year, according to Up-ACreek. The other world championship was won by an Up-A-Creek team competing in the FIRST Tech Challenge competition. That team is composed of 14 students in grades seven through 12.

The challenge competition required the 75-student team to design, build and test a 120-pound, 5-foot-tall robot that competed on a basketball court sized floor

The challenge was to build a robot in a few months that could accurately and quickly launch oversized tennis balls into a large funnel in the center of the floor, then climb offset parallel bars within a 2K-minute game. The Up-A-Creek team lege courses, giving them the opportunity to start their postsecondary education with approximately 21,000 college credits on their transcripts, potentially saving their families $5.3 million in tuition costs. Our graduating seniors have also received numerous recognitions for their academic achievements, talents, and innovative ideas, including: Boettcher Scholarships; Daniels Scholarships; National Merit semifinalists and finalists; AllState athletes; All-State musicians; and thousands of college acceptance letters from institutions across the country including many Ivy League schools, military academies, and other was undefeated during the regular season, advancing to the world championship in Houston with about 450 other teams. Forty students from the team attended the championship, and the team was undefeated through the playoffs, winning its division.

For the finals, Up-ACreek team members picked teams from California, Michigan and Texas to form an alliance. Their alliance won the world championship in a tiebreaker, using three robots that included a “secret weapon” from the Michigan team that had the ability to hold two of the opponents balls in their machine while defending.

“This starved the other highly competitive colleges and universities. We are incredibly proud of what our students have accomplished in a time of increasing academic rigor, expanding graduation requirements, and the highest expectations of leadership, community and citizenship.

Public education is one of the most powerful systems for driving positive change in our society

Across the United States, over 90 percent of our nation’s children attend a public school, and in the St Vrain Valley, that percentage is even higher. With the future success of our community and nation dependent on the quality of our public schools, we have no greater responsibility than ensuring every child alliance of fuel, and we won,” said Niwot High School computer science teacher Teresa Ewing, who is a team mentor Milo Ruiz, a senior at Silver Creek High School, joined Up-A-Creek four years ago. This year, he worked on the controls team, which was in charge of assembling, wiring and prototyping ... systems.

“I learned a lot about mechanics and electrical work and the design process,” said Ruiz, who is planning to study aerospace engineering at Purdue University

At the competition, he was on the pit crew, making sure the robot was in good working order after each match.

“It’s not a tiny little in our community receives a rigorous, engaging, and high-quality education. To this end, it is an honor to stand alongside our Board of Education, teachers, staff, parents, administrators, and other community partners to celebrate the Class of 2022 and recognize their high levels of success. robot,” he said. “It’s got a lot of stuff on it. You have to know everything that can go wrong.”

Lastly, I want to share my heartfelt gratitude to all of our seniors and wish you the very best in life. Our schools will forever be strengthened by your time in our community — you are truly a class of compassionate, dedicated, intelligent, and outstanding people who will boldly lead our country into the future.

Don Haddad, Ed.D., is superintendent of St. Vrain Valley Schools.

Along with building a high quality robot, he said, his team was successful because they worked well together

“We did really well with having a connected team,” he said. “We knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses.”

The three-team alliance went undefeated, winning the division finals and outscoring the opposing alliance in two of three close matches to claim the world championship.

Nichelle Gilbert, a freshman at Niwot High, joined Up-A-Creek in fourth grade. This year, she worked on the tech chal- lenge’s software team and described building the robot as “a very bumpy road.” The team also built a second, improved version of the robot just a few weeks before worlds, requiring her group to reconfigure all their code.

While she said she was “immensely excited” to win a global competition, she called FIRST’s promotion of the idea of “gracious professionalism” the most important lesson that she learned in robotics.

“Even if you lose, you haven’t actually lost because you’ve met so many amazing people along the way,” she said. “And, when the winning team goes to the next level, you’re going with them too, at least in spirit.”