It was a giant step for a small rural school like ours to enter the highly competitive world of FIRST Robotics. But this year’s robotics team more than lived up to the FIRST acronym; For Inspiration and Recognition of Science &Technology.
Most competing teams boast enrollments that eclipse ours and many are also situated in communities with a strong industrial base which lend employees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers to mentor students designing and building FIRST robots.
“Regardless of how strong a competitor we could be, I believe our kids deserve a chance to participate in an activity that teaches so much,” said Susan Schwarz, the math teacher who launched the FIRST team here.
The Wildcat team – comprised of six high school and middle school students — completed its second season in April with greater success than anticipated.
“Dive” was the FIRST design challenge for 2025. Each team created a robot capable of working underwater to stack two different objects, one representing delicate coral and the other slimy algae.
The outlook was bleak for their first tournament, held at Grand Valley State University, because the team was struggling to get its robot to function properly. Susan put out a call for help and people responded who diagnosed the problem: Some parts in the robot kit were faulty and simply needed to be reset.
This allowed the Wildcat robot to perform one of the tasks admirably, which opened the door for our team to be picked to join a strong alliance and be named alliance captain.
As you can imagine, our team was thrilled to see their robot climb in the rankings.
“Success in FIRST is not just about how good your robot is,” Susan explained. “It’s also about how good the team is at working with others to accomplish goals.”
The team’s second tournament, held at Ferris State University, was fun but not as successful. The robot did what it was designed to do, but the random draw assigned our team to an alliance with fewer strengths.
Still, Susan senses interest in FIRST is growing in our school since she’s already been asked when the new season will start.
So, everyone is getting ready for 2026, as the team typically meets afterschool from January through March. (And if YOU are interested in mentoring and getting involved, please let Susan know.)
Susan also coaches a related technology challenge geared toward middle school students that starts in September.
She hopes to grow the program by introducing a “Lego League” open to elementary students in 2025-2026. (There’s room for YOU here, too!)