On Saturday November 15, 2025, the STA robotics team competed in a tournament. Although the title of the STA Robotics Club implies the creation of a robot, this is not the only part of the program. There are a lot of professional skills and even interpersonal skills that are being taught and used in their lab. The names of the STA robotics FTC teams are Raiderbots, RoboRaiders, BuccaNEERS, and Pyrites. The robotics team has fundraised and managed their funds, completed outreach and volunteer work to bring robotics to middle schools, and organized their teams and themselves. Additionally, the team has followed the design process, fallen short and tried and tried again, and they have had to resolve disputes between clashing of ideas within the team (even arguing between their teams). Members of the team learn to divide the work between the group, hold the team accountable for the work they promised they would do, work simultaneously with each other to make the most of their time, and work collaboratively (all four teams) to achieve a common goal. The program can have a lot of rigor, though it is highly dependent on how much time and effort each person puts in. To summarize, the program in one word: resilience. It is not the matter of “if the team encounters obstacles,” but rather “when” and “what types” and how you respond to them.

This year’s FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) competition kicked off on September 6th, with a competition called DECODE. FIRST aims to bring robotics to everyone and promotes two key values: (portmanteau of co-operation and competition) and gracious professionalism. Coopertition, like the name implies, is the healthy balance between being competitive, but also helping and cooperating with the people that one is competing with. Gracious professionalism is breaking up tasks and working together to accomplish high-quality work while also respecting individuals and the community. November 15th was the second meet this year (plus one scrimmage) that the four STA Robotics teams have competed in. Meet three will be on December 6th, 2025, at North Broward Preparatory School, followed by qualifiers. Teams that move on will go to League Championships, which will be hosted here at STA on January 24th, 2026.