Trial and Error Robotics got homeschooled recently. Our team hosted Mrs. Cheryl Montgomery’s homeschool science class, providing them with a presentation and tour of our facilities. The students were curious about how we built our robots and what we do as a FIRST Tech Challenge team. Some of the students were also interested in joining our team. 

Before the tour began, our coach, Mr. Cody, briefly introduced our team and spoke about our facility. We started the tour by showing the class our 3D printer room. The students seemed very interested in the 3D printers. Mrs. Ashley, one of our mentors, explained how 3D printers work to the group and answered their questions.

We then showed the students to our CAD room, a small room filled with computers. Some team members spoke to the class about the programs our build team uses to design and model our robots. Our coach then explained what CAD, Computer-Aided Design, means and its purpose in our build process. We also told them about some of the programs we use to model our bots, like Solidworks and Blender.

Next, the group toured our electronic lab, laser cutting room, and workshop. A few of our team members spoke with the group about each of these rooms. The workshop was fascinating to the class due to all the tools and exciting machinery. Our senior team members helped to explain to the class what each of the machines did and how we used them.

Our last stop on the tour was our team’s primary workrooms. The team gave a short explanation of what each room is for, such as building, programming, and writing about our robot. Finally, we showed them our game field and spoke to the class about our latest challenge. We concluded the tour with a short presentation about our team and ended with a Q&A session.

The tour was a fun way for our team to demonstrate our skills and show our workshop. The homeschoolers showed interest in our team and had several good questions for us. We hope our team inspired some students to continue learning about robotics and maybe join our team in the future.

If you want to learn more about our team or your group is interested in a tour, please contact us at ftc10191@gmail.com or text @ 601-618-4750.