April 3, 2013
The MPA FIRST Robotics team has been preparing for the North Star Regional Competition for several months. The MPAror’s (pronounced emperors), along with 180 other MN FRC teams, and more than 2,000 teams worldwide, were given the same challenge: design, build and program a robot in six weeks. Considered “the varsity sport of the mind,” FIRST robotics is a natural way for MPA students to participate in the science, technology, engineering and math fields. Off-season efforts include: marketing, website design for the team site, Team3926.org, community outreach, sponsorship, and recruitment of students and mentors. This past weekend, the North Star Regional event took place at the University of Minnesota’s Mariucci Arena.
Each team had a 10×10 “pit” area, which the MPArors marked with a large banner sporting the names of all their sponsors and our school’s name.
![photo[1].JPG](https://www.moundsparkacademy.org/mpa-news/allschool/assets_c/2013/04/photo%5B1%5D-thumb-300x225-5599.jpg)
This event not only celebrated technology, engineering, innovation and hard work, but also brought students together to work in alliances through Gracious Professionalism and Coopertition, two terms created by FIRST. The MPAror’s competed valiantly with their beautiful robot, which at one point climbed to the second level of the pyramid. The team was appreciative of all MPA fans who came to cheer the team on, dressed in bright turquoise and waving their specially designed “Robo-Hankies”.
See more photos here. (Photos by Nicole Koen, MPArors advisor and MPA faculty member, and Michael Wilke, MPA 9th grader and Robotics team member.)
Links of interest:
FRC Team 3926 ~ The MPAror website
About the game Ultimate Ascent
