Our Story
The Pace Invaders has gone through thick and thin for three years now. We travelled further than we could have ever imagined in that time, and we will undoubtley travel further. Since the beginning we've always said, "Go Big, or Go Home". We aren't going home. Read our story.
A Journey Begins
Considering ourselves as the "little school that could", we took the huge step to establish ourselves as a FIRST Robotics team. This was a more than a little daunting for a high school with less than 150 students, no shop facilities, and absolutely no experience in the field of robotics. When the team turned out to be more than 50% Grade 9's we chose to approach it as an opportunity. Think of the experience these students would have by the time they reached the senior grades!
From the very beginning we knew we wanted to be more than "just" a robotics team. We opted to take the opportunity to also do something for the world around us. We became a green team, designing many of our fund raising efforts around the environment. We still collect printer cartridges and cell phones to be recycled and assist our environmental club in redirecting used batteries from landfills. We have encouraged our school community to adopt CF light bulbs in their homes and reminded everyone of the importance of properly disposing of their yard waste. Our environmental efforts continue.
On the robot front we were more than successful. Having received the standard rookie team advice – make sure you do one thing well – that's exactly what we set out to do. And exactly what we accomplished. Our robot, who we affectionately named Marvin (because we are Hitchhiker's fans), played one element of the game exceptionally well. As such we were chosen to participate in an alliance in the playoff rounds. Exceptional success for our first year out!
The Sophomore Crunch
With the blush of excitement over, there is always the fear that enthusiasm will lag. Not so for us. In fact we were so enthused with FIRST we started two FIRST Lego League teams and implemented a Junior FIRST Lego League program within our school. Sharing the joy of our robotics experience made is even better and the reward was huge when one of our FLL teams won their qualifier and made it to the provincial championships.
By January we had of course lost some of our founding members to graduation, but had also added some eager new Grade 9 students to the team. Luckily, one of our graduates found his co-op job in Toronto and returned as a mentor. Some of our experience from the previous year was sure to pay off, and of course we set out to add to that even further. Our success from the previous year led to even greater support from our school administration and we were given the opportunity to work every night of the build season until 9 o'clock – an offer we took full advantage of.
So we raised Marvin's performance goals. This year we would participate in all aspects of the game. We even designed a modular system that allowed us to shift our game playing technique during the course of competition. Again making it to the final playoff rounds (with a higher entrance seeding) we felt we had once again achieved great success.
The Nearly Veteran Team
The Grade 9's we started with are now in Grade 11 and eager to accept the mantle of leadership. They recognize that they have many gaps in their knowledge but know that the opportunity is there to fill them as some of the greater expertise on the team has graduated. The loss of our lead builder and lead electronics expert has become another opportunity. Part of the magic of our school is the willingness of the student body to accept a challenge and the accompanying need to conquer it. It might seem strange to imagine a group of high school students eager for the day when they can stay at school until 9 o'clock every night – but that is who we are. Every single member of the build team is counting the days until kick-off.
We now have three FLL teams under our umbrella, and continue with the Junior FLL program. We have now also added the Robofest competition to our repertoire as a great opportunity for junior and senior teams to work together on similar projects while not directly competing against each other. The small team focus of Robofest is also a great way to gain another kind of team experience.
This year our goal is far from simple but very clear. We will design and build this year's Marvin so that he is not only proficient in all aspects of the game – whatever that may be – but is also exceptional in performance of at least one element. With that we see ourselves not merely making it to the playoff rounds, but actually participating in the finals. This is the final rung on the ladder that will hopefully see us make the World Championships in Atlanta in 2011.