Overview

FLL

Applications for the 2023-2024 school year are now closed.

FLL, short for FIRST LEGO League, is a fun, interactive program for students grades 6th through 8th, providing the opportunity to learn and explore. In this program, students learn how to utilize LEGO MINDSTORMS to code and build their autonomous robots with guidance from high school student mentors. Each year, Cupertino High hosts a FLL Tournament where other FLL teams from neighboring schools and areas come to compete and learn from one other. The double tournament is followed consecutively by more tournaments up to the Open Championships, where teams compete from others around the world. This initiative allows the youth community to delve into STEM centered concepts, acquire life-long skills, and overall, learn in a fun and educational environment through Cupertino Robotics.

The FLL teams meet twice per week, lead by student mentors (Youth Mentors) from Cupertino Robotics. We hope to offer one remote meeting and one in-person meeting at Cupertino High School on Friday afternoons. Throughout the season, teammates work to develop a Project, a Robot, and their Core Values. Team members are expected to devote 2 to 4 hours of effort per week outside of these meetings.

Each team requires one parent to volunteer as an "assistant coach" (no robotics skills required since the Youth Mentors do this). All parents are expected support the teams during the day-long tournaments. Cupertino Robotics requests a voluntary donation of $150 per child to help defray the cost of the program.

Season Timeline:

• First team meeting: second week of middle school

• Tournaments: one in January (on a weekend) and possibly one in February

• Last team meeting: week after the last tournament

FTC

Applications for the 2023-2024 school year are now closed.

FTC, short for FIRST Tech Challenge, is a great learning experience full of planning, building, competing, and reaching out to the community for 9th and 10th-grade students. Throughout the build season, students design, assemble, and program a robot in response to that season's challenge in teams of 8-10 other students. Our mentors, Mr. Williams and Mr. Lo, train students to safely exercise lab skills and explore new engineering designs and ideas. They use mistakes and brilliant ideas alike to teach us about mechanical principles, building & testing methods, and the process of applying careful calculations. In addition, through various outreach events where members volunteer at various community gatherings, we are able to make a difference outside of just our teams by spreading knowledge of FIRST and inspiring more kids to pursue careers in STEM. Most importantly, students learn how to work effectively in teams with a positive attitude, which we like to call gracious professionalism.

The FTC teams meet twice per week for 2 hours at a time in the roboshack after school. We hope to offer in-person meetings, but with the quickly changing circumstances we will have to adapt as needed. Cupertino Robotics requests a voluntary donation of $150 per child to help defray the cost of the program.

Season Timeline:

• Summer Training: First 2 weeks of August

• First team meeting: second week of high school

• Tournaments: one in December or January (on a weekend) and possibly one in February

• Last team meeting: week after the last tournament