Contact Information:
Team eMail: plaidpillagers2538@gmail.com
Team Mentors:
Eric Buchanan – woodshedzen@yahoo.com
Wendy DeRung - wderung@chokioalberta.k12.mn.uw
Derek Romberger - romb0019@morris.umn.edu
Michael Romberger - michaelromberger@live.com
What is FIRST Robotics?
FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is an organization that teaches youth the importance of leadership, ingenuity, and gracious professionalism while emphasizing the importance of science and technology. Each season teams are given a limited time to design and build a robot made to compete in a unique challenge predetermined by FIRST. Through the process of building a robot, team members develop important life skills such as communication, teamwork, leadership, and dedication. FIRST opens the doors for future engineers and innovators.
Accomplishments:
The Minnesota regionals have become some of the most widely attended regionals in the world. Many who compete in them go on to compete at the international level. At these regionals the Plaid Pillagers have advanced to State competition 4 times (2012 & 2016 finalists) and have been awarded the Gracious Professionalism, Team Spirit, and Xerox Creativity Awards. In addition to competing regionally, the team participates in community outreach.
About us:
Based in Morris, Minnesota, the Plaid Pillagers have been competing for over 15 years and continue to stress the importance of leadership, cooperation and execution within the team by students. The team encourages its members to pass on these qualities to future generations of the team so they may continue to grow as both individuals and as a group.
While one of the goals of the FIRST Robotics Competition is to win, it is not the only objective. From the stress of designing, building and debugging a robot, to raising sufficient funds and practicing gracious professionalism, this organization provides an experience that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
Check out how the team established a new funding stream while providing for a renewable source of energy here.