Awards:

Team Awards

Innovation Nation Winner, Platinum Award - 2011

Engineering Inspiration, Waterloo Regional, 2011

Creativity in Design, Greater Toronto West Regional, 2011

Finalist, Greater Toronto West Regional, 2011

Engineering Inspiration, Greater Toronto Regional, 2010

Gracious Professionalism, Waterloo Regional, 2010

Engineering Inspiration, Waterloo Regional, 2009

Finalist, Waterloo Regional, 2009

Judges Award, Waterloo Regional, 2008

Individual Awards:

Dean's List Finalist, Nick Bandiera, Greater Toronto West Regional, 2011

Dean's List Winner, Nick Bandiera, International Championships St. Louis, 2011

Woodie Flowers Award, George Chisholm (Mentor), Waterloo Regional, 2011

Dean's List Finalist, Evelyn Wainewright, Waterloo Regional, 2010

FIRST FLL Awards:

Young Mentor Awards:

Cory Sulpizi, Halton Regional, 2010

Evelyn Wainewright, Halton/Peel Regional, 2009

Lyle Scott, Halton/Peel Regional 2008

Evelyn Wainewright, Halton Regional, 2006

Volunteer Award:

Nick Bandiera, Ontario Provincials, 2008

History:

FIRST® Team 1334 OTHS Robotics started in 2003 and has been a hit with students ever since. We attract male and female students with many interests, and membership averages about 40 students each year.

At FIRST Team 1334, we have worked hard to forge strong partnerships with our mentor and sponsor organizations and several sponsors have provided mentors to the team and offered summer employment to our team members. An important part of the learning experience of FIRST is meeting local industry professionals who help guide us through the various tasks we must accomplish in a supportive environment using problem-solving methods that help us learn with guidance. We are extremely grateful for their continued support.

The FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC®) challenges high school-aged teams of students and their mentors to solve a common problem in a six-week timeframe using a standard "kit of parts" and a common set of rules. Teams build robots from the parts and enter them in a series of competitions in a high energy, sports-like setting. We like to think of it as "sports for the mind".

The FRC competition has grown to over 2,000 teams competing in 58 regional and district events worldwide. Locally, competitions are held at the University of Waterloo and the Hershey Centre, Mississauga. The Championship will be held for the FIRST time this year at the Edward Jones Dome, St. Louis, Missouri, where 300 teams from all over the world will compete. It is amazing to witness these thousands of high school students competing with the attitude that differentiates FIRST from other types of competitive teams, Gracious Professionalism™ and Coopertition™. Many FRC® participants will also volunteer at the concurrent FIRST® LEGO® League World Championships for elementary school-aged children from around the world.

A FIRST team is like a microcosm of the real world. It takes many people with a variety of strengths and skills to ensure all the parts of the team come together to ultimately produce the product. FIRST redefines winning for these students. Teams are rewarded for excellence in design, demonstrated team spirit, gracious professionalism, creativity, teamwork, maturity and ability to overcome obstacles. Scoring the most points is a secondary goal. In FIRST, winning means building partnerships that last.

It's not Only About the Robot!

We started our team in 2003 after "catching the bug" from a neighbouring school, St Mildred's Lightbourn School (FIRST Team 771). We have since learned that FIRST is contagious. Once you see a competition, you are compelled to participate.

When we started the team in the fall of 2003 with a core of about 15 mainly grade nine students, no one knew what to expect!

We struggled though a very steep learning curve on several fronts: how to earn sponsorships, how to recruit mentors, how to work as a team, and how to publicize our team within the school community. There was all this to do, even before kickoff! With the help of community mentors, we learned some sound engineering practices, such as brainstorming, engineering processes, documentation and compliance.

What we learned is that a FIRST robotics project is just like running a small business. A team not only has to have the product (a robot), but a whole business behind it (marketing, finance, R&D, publicity, communications, etc.)

Obviously, all the engineering and science behind the design of the robot is critical, but we learned that the "technology" side can't thrive without the "business" side and vice-versa. So that's where teamwork comes in. Inter-team and intra-team, a FIRST project is just too big for one person and groups of specialties must work together.

Recruiting Team Members

In the spirit of FIRST, we do not have try-outs and accept all those who are interested in joining our team. As stated in our mission, FIRST Team 1334 has a fundamental belief that every student deserves the opportunity to have the best possible robotics experience. We also encourage our team members to continue to participate in their other extra-curricular activities.

Five years ago, FIRST Team 1334 started mentoring FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL) teams at local schools, and we have expanded FIRST's influence by mentoring dozens of teams and reaching hundreds of young robotics students. This resulted in increased interest in FIRST Team 1334. We like to think of the FLL teams we mentor as our "farm teams". We now have a keen, FIRST indoctrinated group of grade nine students to carry on our FIRST tradition.

As well, students from neighbouring schools, regardless of their school board, are welcome to join our team. FIRST Team 1334 has had team members from 6 schools from Halton and Peel private, public and separate school boards. This year, we have a very active team member who is still in elementary school!