The Charge

Midland Robotics

About Us

The Charge’s first year was FIRST’s 2008 competition.  The build and competition season ran from early January 2008 through mid-April 2008.   There were 17 active students from the H.H. Dow High School and approximately 4-6 adult mentors onsite at any one time.  As rookies, the robot’s build season (6 weeks from announcement of the challenge, determination of what the robot should do and how by the students, design and fabrication by the students with limited assistance from the mentors, followed by testing prior to competition) was very hectic but wildly successful. 

At the rookie robotics regional competition The Charge lead the alliance of two other rookie teams and together we won first place in the rookie regional.  There were a total of 23 challenging teams representing high schools from around the state as well as from Canada at this rookie FIRST competition which was held at Kettering University in Flint.  Several write-ups of the robotics competition and student work appeared in the Midland Daily News.  And the rookie team competition results were reported in the March 10, 2008 edition of the Midland Daily News.

Winning the rookie competition encouraged The Charge team to attend the West Michigan Regional FIRST competition where we were up against some very powerful teams that are sponsored by Chrysler, Ford, GM and other large firms, many of whom have participated in FIRST for 10 years or more.  There were 50 teams in attendance at Grand Valley State University, and The Charge won approximately half of their matches against them and came in about 25th overall.

The 2009 FIRST build season has us expanding The Charge membership from Dow High to also include Midland High students and other high school-age students in Midland County.  One of the goals of The Charge in 2009 is to encourage elementary and junior high students in the Midland area to participate in the “junior” FIRST competitions that use the Lego Mindstorms robots.  Just like the FIRST competitions for high schools students, the elementary and junior high students compete in regional and a national championship each year.

On September 20, 2008, The Charge participated with 42 veteran teams at Kettering University’s Ninth Annual Kickoff Robotics Competition and was selected to be on the winning alliance after Sinclair Sprocket (Whitby, Ontario) team’s robot broke down.  Blocking the Blue Alliance’s robots was what ZeeBee did well.  Participating in three more rounds of competition, The Charge team was victorious in the Red Alliance that included The Foley Freeze #910 (Sterling Heights, Michigan) and the HOT Team #67 (Highland, Michigan). 

More pictures of the September 20 Kickoff Robotics Competition are posted to this web site under the “Kettering Fall 2008” selection.