Cherry Creek is known for winning several sporting events, academic events, and, now, even technological events. Placing twenty-eighth out of fifty-two teams, Cherry Creek’s F.I.R.S.T. (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics club competed in the Arizona Regionals and went to the Colorado Regionals on March 23rd, 2016 and placed twenty-sixth at Denver University.

Students from all grades participate in Robotics. Freshman, Katja Maucec talked about the hardships that she faced and the sudden responsibility she had at the Arizona Competition when their team captain couldn’t show up. Maucec became team captain temporarily and said that she “got a lot of leadership skills and planning skills from being chosen.” Nathan Chang and Jack Lueck, both juniors this year, stated that the Arizona competition was “overall a learning experience.” The team went through a lot and spent an hour of their meeting talking about what they could improve for their Colorado Regional Competition.

Although they had limited mentors and resources this year, FIRST still made an outstanding performance.

“Robotics is an incubator for S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics)” said senior, Gregory Turnquist, a team leader on the Mechanical team. “It’s where young minds can make friends and explore the S.T.E.M world at the same time.”

One of the major things that every person fears in a competition is not being able to compete. “Usually, we’re able to go to every single match, but skipping a match shows other teams that we’re not good enough,” said Turnquist. Jinu Shin, a senior, drives the robots onto the field and has to be careful about how he loads the robots; as a single mistake can get his team disqualified although the field is the same for every competition.

A lot of the issues that team members feared were “connection issues” said  freshman Sai Maddhm. At the Arizona competition, one of the biggest flaws that occurred was when one of the robots completely shut down due to the circuit button being stuck.

Many of the team members mentioned how important it is to be prepared for anything. “You have to be good at adapting. If a plan doesn’t go as planned, it’s very stressful” says Shin. Chang had also mentioned how his ultimate goal for this year is to “have a backup plan for everything.”

FIRST Robotics Club meets every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday in West 557. Students who are interested in joining Robotics Club next year should contact one of the Robotics supervisors: Mr. Horrell, Ms. Flynn, Ms. Carlson, or Mr. Carter.