Livonia Warriors FIRST Robotics
2016 Season Kickoff
February 1, 2016
Week 3 Video Update by Ben DeSantis (Stevenson High School)
Community Impact
FIRST emphasizes the importance of inspiring our community to get involved in STEM. Spreading the word of FIRST is imperative to this team. Albeit we are composed of three schools, we still have a small team because our requirements to get on the team sometimes are too tough for people to accomplish. The requirements to get on the team include doing eight hours of community service, attending eight community impact events, and mentoring one of our FTC teams. We have many opportunities for our students to complete their impact hours, including going to the Hands on Museum, participating in Barnes and Nobles Mini Fair, a Livonia Spree Lemonade Stand, Sponsor demonstrations, holding our own FTC Competition, and many more. One of the most fun our students had were when they were creating their own community impact events. Two of our students, Noah Downie of Stevenson High School and Ben Lenze of Churchill High School, created an interesting event that featured the movie Spare Parts at our local library, The Civic Center. Another requirement to get on the team is fundraising. Our fundraisings events are always a lot of fun, and this summer we acquired a new, big sponsor, Roush, who amazingly have sponsored us with $5,000. A few different events took place at restaurants, including Buffalo Wild Wings, Noodles and Company, and Qdoba. All these events have helped unite the team, and helped us form new relationships with people and possible sponsors. One of the most inspirational events was when we held a mini college fair/movie premiere at Stevenson High School. We managed to draw a big crowd, and everyone enjoyed Slingshot, the movie we showed. Not only did we acquire Roush as a new sponsor, but our local Home Depots donated supplies for us to use during the competition season. The most important event for our team to be a part of this off-season, was Bounce Back to School. This event, held at Stevenson High School, helped us spread STEM to the children of our community, and thanks to Scholastic, we were able to give out free books to the kids who caught Frisbees from our robot Athena (2013 Competition Season). The requirements to be accepted on to the Livonia Warriors can be a little overwhelming, but mentoring the middle-school FTC teams was definitely an experience of a lifetime. By adding the obligation to mentor these kids, we were able to make connections with them at an early age, before they move on to the Livonia Warriors.
Emma Farquharson, Stevenson High School
Bounce Back to School
Unloading "Jort" for demonstration
Slingshot Movie Viewing
Inspiring the Next Generation of Warriors
The Livonia Warriors continue to impact the community, including students of younger ages. Team 2832 inspired the creation of the Holmes RoboHawks FTC team, located at Holmes Middle School. The RoboHawks were invited to the FTC State Championship in 2014; and because of their success, the Frost RoboPhantoms and the Emerson RoboEagles were born at the two remaining Livonia middle schools. The Warriors were able to mentor all three of the FTC teams over the summer to get them ready for their upcoming season. We showed the younger students how to do specifics in the mechanical, programming, and imagery aspects of the team. The RoboPhantoms and the RoboEagles were both rookies at the 2015 FTC competition at Frost, and competed alongside the RoboHawks in the Res-Q game. The RoboPhantoms were in the semi-finals, as well as the RoboHawks who made it to the semi-finals at the competition at Howell. The RoboEagles got through eliminations to the finals. The Warriors are very proud of the teams we inspire and continue to influence. In addition, we have been talking with Jen Amin, the Vice President of the PTA at Hoover Elementary, about implementing a FIRST Lego League (FLL) program at the school. We are happy to see other schools in our community excited about robotics and FIRST as well, knowing that we started it all.
Grace Pagnucco, Stevenson High School
Middle School FTC competition
FTC Robot is competition
Grace giving a seminar to FTC students
About Us
Email: icarlini@livoniapublicschools.org
Website: www.livoniawarriors.com
Location: 16200 Newburgh Road, Livonia, MI 48154
Phone: (734) 845-7961
Facebook: facebook.com/LivoniaWarriors
Twitter: @LivoniaWarriors