This is the blog for FIRST Robotics Competition Team 7277 - the robotics program at Nelson Mandela High School in Calgary, Alberta, Canada
2019 Canadian Rockies Regional - Big Robots, Big Competition, Big Opportunities
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-X14EULEGzKdlGD9SnpZUtwosaRcGLS93zrtO2B6GYEFppo9PKvbvCKFo22jTvgJWt4vvSrYnW0wAbIsfDEhO9JuM_wkYncbMuJkm0E-DpvSVc94wpUKa0jgvHmR83VOfOmUxh5NTUg6W/s200/9.jpg)
A question: When you think of students spending months of after school sessions honing their abilities and practicing their movements so that they can take the field and compete against the best students from other schools across the city, province, and world, what do you think of?
Most of us default to football, basketball, or badminton, but on April 5th and 6th the best future scientists and engineers in our high schools will show off the skills they have honed and movements they’ve practiced in the FIRST Robotics Competition(FRC).This year’s game features students competing in the game Deep Space with a robot that they fabricated in the first six weeks of 2019.
This is the second year for one of those programs, team 7277 from Nelson Mandela High School, and their Safety Captain April Nguyen. April is set to pursue a career in nursing after graduating and acts as the team’s manager of organizing tools, preventing and calling out unsafe situations, and making sure that everyone on the team goes home healthy. “FIRST showed me that I could do more than I thought. Robotics was never my interest but to see that I could participate as part of a team made it incredibly interesting.”
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX2DE-NJGTaPanAldDulMokaCtjF_2UFwi3bc1UXrnUIiUCinBpOVtuZpkn8zeEMfPI3T3MoA2u4ldFYi5a_f3x9387iyIS76jAE9cJENOuYoXx2peXp5QAGGPBEn9TNlXjN4tYx6ClHiq/s200/Hook+Photo.jpg)
This competition was an epiphany for some members of 7277 last year after they received the honor of being named Rookie All Stars at the Western Canadian Regional. That honor came with an invite to Houston to join the CBE’s teams 4627 and 4733 from Ernest Manning and EP Scarlett High Schools in competing at a world championship.
“Houston opened a new field of competition for our school.” April added. “Competing didn’t need to be just in athletics, it could be in other areas. It’s really exciting to go to a championship and experience that, especially as rookies. I’ve never experienced that with any athletic team and being there to represent our school was incredible.”
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheI0jI6HM9eEYouQhz1TojhltnVLSVZjH1uLqbs1W6ikDzXxQOtDFhXR3nplfPNFJ9s5Gq-TznxuzYEpDd7QAKO1p3GTHZI7ohQypDxmyAcFo-gx-r4F38kSdIXEaWZd_5TuXKheKmCtjh/s200/MVIMG_20180405_133404.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCvMqnmCkh4Rclhg0RQ1Dx21Vb5AmajlygIxM5S1dx-Dawtfk6zHDDzceYD51DmpPEORGoXQqA9cgoOvNhDxiNlwCmLlmo7nL2v_GFnqRiPRI6tWrxcwq-eVe8C4aeN-pNeOQY9RvK4IDk/s320/MVIMG_20190219_195652.jpg)
The competition commences on April 5th at 8:30AM and runs until the late afternoon on Saturday April 6th in the Nelson Mandela main gym. It will feature 35 teams including competitors from across Alberta, the United States, Mexico, Turkey, China, and Australia. Admission is free and the public is welcome to come watch and cheer on the students as they compete for the honor of being Canadian Rockies Champions.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
-
A question: When you think of students spending months of after school sessions honing their abilities and practicing their movements so t...
-
2018 Canadian Rockies Regional - A Lesson in Gracious Professionalism April 8th 2018 Calgary, Alberta, Canada- The image on the righ...
-
2018 Houston Championship Recap Mitchell Way - Head Mentor - Team 7277 Mandela United Robotics Team I have to start this article with ...