Fenton Middle School robotics girls win first | News for Fenton, Linden, Holly MI

 At the Girls R GRAYT event in Ann Arbor on Saturday, May 4, the girls finished in the winning alliance with two other teams.

 “They were very excited,” said Tom Thompson, coach of the Chromium Tigers middle school team. “It’s a very fun event and organization that they get to participate in.”

 This was an off-season competition. The other two teams on the winning alliance were the Hartland Static Eagle Robotics Team and the Blue Goggles Team out of Northville.

 Five girls on the two middle school teams, the Tungsten Tigers and the Chromium Tigers, competed on the Fenton team in Ann Arbor under the name Tungsten Tigers. They used their robot, Kirby Carlwash, to help secure first place. Their robot also received the “Robots Just Want to Have Fun” award for engineering.

Thompson said “high fives and fit bumps” was his reaction.

 “A big term the F.I.R.S.T. robotics organization uses is ‘gracious professionalism,’ and they definitely showed support for other teams and boosted up the other teams,” he said.

 Gracious professionalism is a term coined by F.I.R.S.T. that encourages all students and participants to be gracious to everybody they compete against. F.I.R.S.T. stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.”

 “It was great,” said Amelia Farvel, seventh grade student on the team. Farvel is usually the drive coach during competitions but at this event, she was the driver and controlled the robot’s wheels.

 “I was really surprised because I didn’t think I was doing that well but I actually did a good job,” she said. “I was really happy.”

 They received an award for the robot because they were the only team to have a swerve drive, which is an advanced drive for a middle school team. Farvel said they shared their swerve design with the other teams.

 This competition was different from their regular season competitions.

 “It was a lot different because usually there’s a lot more people per team. It was a lot less crowded. It was more lowkey, but we were still getting really into it,” she said. They did not do a presentation like they normally do at other competitions.

 Farvel joined the robotics program in fourth grade and has participated every year except sixth grade.

 “I like the team building activities and competitions. It’s stressful but also really fun to be there and be a part of the experience,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to do engineering and tech related stuff and I thought robotics would be a really cool way to expand my knowledge and I’ve had a really good time.”

 Farvel said they did celebrate with the other two teams after the competition.

 She plans to continue robotics in high school.

 “I think a lot more people should join robotics because it’s really fun. It’s a great opportunity,” Farvel said.

 Fenton Robotics is having a recruitment open house on Saturday, May 11 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Ellen St. Campus/World of Wonder, 404 W. Ellen St., Fenton. Students interested in robotics can come ask questions about the program and tour the robotics build room.

 Thompson said they’re planning to put on a class to teach kids CAD (computer aided design) programming and computer programming.