As the holiday season begins to fade in the rear-view mirror, we begin to turn our attention toward the second half of the school year. The next few months will be a busy time at the middle school as we continue to focus on the goals we set for this school year and also begin to plan for the 2022-2023 school year as well. In the coming months, we will be providing details and information on the M-Step/PSAT state assessments being administered this spring and student course selections and scheduling for the next school year. In the meantime, please take a moment to review the following notes and reminders:

• NWEA Testing

• Winter NWEA testing will begin January 4th. These web-based, adaptive tests in Reading, Language Usage, and Mathematics are used to measure a student’s growth and progress in each area throughout the school year.

• Parent-Teacher Conferences

• Winter Parent-Teacher Conferences will again take place in a virtual format as they did in the fall. More information will be coming in early January.

6th Grade

Luke Darling

Liam Phelps

Mackenzie Seaton

Violet Schoenherr

7th Grade

Peyten Beecherl

Grace Girvin

Edward Marshall

Cole Wakeham

8th Grade

Gabriel Aiello

Travis Corey

Peyten Goike

Landyn McDevitt

Each season more than 500 middle school teams in the state are presented with the season’s challenge/game in September at kickoff. The challenge this season is titled Power Play (click to learn more) which had teams competing to stack cones on junctions ranging from just a few inches off the playing field to junctions almost 3 feet tall. Teams then spend the next three months strategizing, designing, engineering, and iterating their robots while making connections with companies in the STEM field, conducting community outreaches, and raising funds to compete against fierce competition for a chance to reach the State Championship.

This season the Pi-Gears were made up of 15 members: Alayna Marecki, Presleigh Butkovitch, James Schommer, Jack Ayers, Nate Spencer, Ella Lain, Madison Lentz, Ashley Goretski, Natalie Hermann, Declan Poole, Luke Trupiano, Brian Langmesser, Connor McClear, Cooper Phipps, and Abby Gonzalez.

To reach the State Championship, the team competed in two qualifying tournaments at North Branch and Troy. At North Branch the team made the playoffs as the 3rd seed, but lost in the semis. However, the team won the Innovate Award, placed 2nd for the Inspire Award, and advanced to the State Championship tournament. Looking to show progress after North Branch, the team made some strides going into the Troy tournament. These strides saw the Pi-Gears making the playoffs again, this time winning the tournament while posting new high scores. On top of the tournament win, the Pi-Gears also earned the Motivate Award for their outreach and connections made amongst the STEM community.

Entering the State of Michigan FTC Championship the Pi-Gears competed against 71 other Michigan teams over two days. Following qualification matches, the team entered the playoffs as the #4 seeded alliance in the division. Competing as the fourth seeded alliance the Pi-Gears took on the division’s #1 seed, ultimately winning a really tough match-up in 4 games. From there, the team swept the division finals and the interdivision finals each in two games to become Michigan FTC State Champions!

It was truly a team effort that started well before the season’s game reveal in September. This team has accomplished not only earning the first State Championship for the middle school, but can also say they conducted 18 different outreach activities reaching more than 2,000 people ranging in age from pre-k to adult. As part of these outreaches, the team was able to help start 2 additional FIRST Lego League teams at Krause Elementary and advocate for robotics programs working through US Senator Gary Peters and his representatives. To top it off, the team was able to gain sponsorships from SAIC, Prosper Tech Machine & Tool, Ford, Intrepid IT, Henshaw, and more totaling $6,000.

These accomplishments, and the ones since the start of the program in 2018, have made Armada one of the top tier FTC robotics programs in the state of Michigan! The Pi-Gears are now well-known in the Michigan FTC community, and plan to continue to work in-order to sustain these successes over the coming years.

It’s now the off-season where the team will work on projects, outreaches, learning, and recruiting for team spots for the 2023-2024 season! Look out for opportunities that will be offered to students to participate in team held workshops and to apply/try-out for a team spot on the 2023-2024 Pi-Gears robotics team.

This year we will continue using portions of the Armada High School Extracurricular Eligibility Policy. The purpose of using this policy is to help middle school students prepare for the rigors of high school and develop an understanding of tracking their academic progress. We want students to enrich their middle school experience through clubs, athletic teams, and dances, but the primary focus of school will remain academics.

The policy requires students to have a minimum of a 2.0 grade point average (GPA) in order to participate in extracurricular activities. Grades will be checked every Friday morning and students will be notified by the end of the day of their ineligible status. Students will be granted a one-time warning, giving them an opportunity the following week to improve their academic standing.

Citizenship and behavioral reporting will also play a role in eligibility. If a student receives two or more poor citizenship marks on a progress report, report card, or weekly report, they will be ineligible. The Acceptable Behavior Program point system will also be used, as in the past. Students who have three (3) points will also be considered ineligible.

We hope the eligibility policy develops responsibility in our students and encourages a sense of Tiger Pride in daily academic effort and citizenship.