2020 Juggernaut's Chairman's Presentation

 BRINGING BALANCE TO THE FoRCe

In 2000 FIRST was a force that was changing a culture and encouraging teams to do the same. The need for engineers was growing at a pace for which the world had no answer. Team 1 wanted to create a force that would help and encourage science and technology in our area. As a result, Team 1 wrote a proposal to our school district requesting financial support to start the Oakland County Competitive Robotics Association or OCCRA. The 1st ever robotics league that allowed students a chance to apply their skills and curiosity developed through their FIRST experience. Many FIRST teams were excited about this new opportunity to promote inspiration of Science and Technology. Even schools with no previous robot experience were eager to participate. If these teams got their feet wet in OCCRA, they could develop the skills needed to make the jump to the FIRST experience.

As the years continued to pass, OCCRA looked for ways to encourage science and technology in the middle schools. In 2013-2017, we ran and hosted a middle school tournament open to all the middle schools in our county. It was fantastic! We saw smiles and happy faces as the competitions grew! However the league used a different robotics platform than FIRST, so these teams weren’t making the jump to FRC like we’d hoped. An imbalance occurred as FIRST went one way and OCCRA went another. We didn’t expect this to happen. All we were trying to do was encourage more students to experience the FIRST program we adore! We decided to figure out a way to encourage middle schools to experience robotics using a FIRST platform, namely the FIRST Tech Challenge. We used the format that was successful in OCCRA and married it to FTC. In 2018, we ran a pilot of a county competition structure for middle schools which was developed by a partnership between FIRST In Michigan (FIM) and OCCRA. We ran events in an effort to spread the word of FIRST to the middle schools. We then looked to the elementary level to see if there was something we could. In May of 2018, we worked with FRC teams #469 and #573 to manage an FLL event at Marian High School. Our main focus at this event was to act as tech support and help all of the FLL teams feel comfortable talking to judges

After that, we decided that we were beginning to balance the powers in the growth of STEM, but we needed to continue to try to balance even more. We looked at not only OCCRA teams who needed FIRST in their life, but also at the other Technical Campuses in our district to see if we could help them. This resulted in teams #7769 and #7553 starting their participation in FRC. Since these teams are already used to making 120-pound robots, our team gave them advice and offered assistance whenever needed to help them make the transition from OCCRA to FRC

We were almost there! The balance was starting to happen and the excitement was building. We went through a season of discovery and were finally ready to balance the powers of FIRST and OCCRA in a way that would see Middle School teams (36 teams) competing on a weekly basis, leading to an OCCRA County FTC Qualifier too. We hosted and ran five league play events and one FIRST FTC qualifier. What a year! We also provided teams with any spare parts they needed along with having two of our Mentor Teams (RUSH Team 27 & MechWarriors 573) host their first ever FTC event. We also hosted two of the five tournaments at our School District Building (Oakland Schools). During one event, our school board was having a meeting next door. They heard all the excitement and couldn’t help but come and see what was happening. We of course didn’t stop there. We also hosted a FLL coach’s league for new elementary teams in the Pontiac School District in partnership with FRC Team Frog Force. We were able to secure $1000 from the Pontiac PAL organization for Pontiac ITA to compete in FLL with the help of a County Commissioner as well. Can you feel it…..the powers when we work together. Not to mention OCCRA had a kickoff, four tournaments, and a High School County Championship for High School teams. Let’s not forget the County banquet, a black tie affair where we announced our County MVP’s, Honorable Mentions, Mentor of the year, Teacher of the Year, and a Foundation Award winner. Oops, we almost forgot, FTC Summer Camp for 6-8 grade which included a robot build, competition, and a day at Oakland University with the Engineering Program.

QUICK FACTS ABOUT THE JUGGERNAUTS 

Established in 1996

Team 1 - Oakland Schools Technical Campus Northeast

Sponsors - FCA Foundation, Hirotec America, and Molex. History - 24 years, Team 1 has helped thousands of students, mentors, and the community to get involved with robotics and STEM programs. Graduating - 100% of the students moved on to college to pursue a career in a STEM field. Some of these seniors even moved on to some of the top STEM programs at universities such as The University of Chicago for Mathematics and Carnegie Mellon University for Computer Science and Robotics.

National Association of Manufactures – Former Governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder, CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers, Jay Timmons; President and CEO of the Michigan Manufacturers Association, Chuck Hadden; and Executive Director of the Manufacturing Institute, Carolyn Lee.

STEM Summer Camp – Partnership with University Middle and high school students split their time between the four Oakland Schools Technical Campuses and OU, learning about robotics and STEM concepts. The camp culminates in a capstone project where students build a 120-pound FIRST-style robot to compete in a FIRST-style game. Juggernauts help mentor these teams by assisting with gathering tools, ensuring safe building practices, and cheerleading, but other than that, the teams are on their own. During the camp, Juggernauts and OU volunteers give multiple physics demonstrations and lessons to help increase STEM participation.

Family Engineering Nights (FEN) Hands-on activities for middle and elementary school students and parents which helps to build their interest in mechanics and engineering as well as encourage them to join robotics competitions such as FLL JR., FLL or FTC.

Turn the Village Teal This special event raises money to help fight the battle of ovarian cancer. The Juggernauts get together a few days before the event and paint the entire robot teal. When it is time for the event, the team sets up an obstacle to help teach younger children how to drive and operate a robot, while also teaching them teamwork and communication skills needed to complete tasks.

Election Day Engineering Day - On Election Day, a group of 10th graders spent the day at the Technical Campus learning about Mechatronics, Machining and Robotics. Team members showed the students what robotics was all about. They had a chance to drive both the FRC robot and vex robots.

JLog – Juggernaut Weblog

Family STEM Day at Molex - We setup robot driving lessons, an obstacle course challenge, as well as a lesson on understanding electricity while making miniature plasma cutters. The participants ranged from elementary to high school students. What a great time we had as we thanked our sponsors for all of their support during the season.

Juggernaut Meet-N-Greet - The Juggernauts had a Meet-and-Greet event for new members. They got a chance to meet the team and engage in some robot-related activities. We look forward to a good year with our expanded family.

Robozone – TV Show dedicated to High School Robotics. FTC & OCCRA Coverage.