Calvin Park Public School played host to the inaugural FIRST tech competition in Kingston. FIRST stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science & Technology.” It is an organization that aims to combine the high intensity of sports with S.T.E.M., or Science Technology Engineering & Math, education.
According to tournament director Melanie Glassford, teams of high schoolers are given 10 weeks to design a robot to solve a problem.
“Every year it’s different, with a different theme,” she said.
Seventeen of the 20 teams came from out of Kingston, Ont., travelling from Toronto to as far as Sudbury. And while the drive was over eight hours, Stephen Suorineni of Team Crimson says the experience and the skills these events teach them is worth the long drive.
“It helps us with building, engineering, programming, you can go into many fields,” he said.
The event also teaches the students skills that can be used outside of the classroom, like communication. Communication was one of the factors that allowed Kingston’s Futuristics to perform so well in their first year, according to Zoe Glassford, a member of the team.
“We won the inspire award, which is the top award, in our first tournament,” she said.
Each team competes for the opportunity to make it to provincials, and eventually the world championships, where they compete against international teams.