The Robograngers team has won an award at the FIRST Tech Challenge UK competition. The team consists of 11 students from ���ϸ������� Grange Academy, from Years 9 to 11. 

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), the organisation that runs the competition, promotes STEM education with programmes that emphasise cooperation and sportsmanship. The FIRST Tech Challenge is a student-centred programme that gives young people a unique and stimulating experience. Each year, with the help of mentors, students engage in a new dynamic challenge where they design, build, test and program robots that must perform a series of game tasks autonomously and under driver control.

The Tech Challenge changes yearly, with a new theme and game rules. The 2024/25 theme was ‘Into the Deep’ with an ocean science theme linking to environmental awareness. The competition revolves around building a robot that can perform tasks in a game field to score points. Each match sees two teams working cooperatively in an “alliance” against another two teams.

As part of the competition season, the team delivered outreach sessions at ���ϸ������� Primary Academy Ledger Lane and Colton Primary School. The sessions included activities such as a robot driving competition, a programming challenge and creating concept designs for robots with the features they would need to complete a given task. The outreach from the team was enough for them to secure this year’s ‘Motivate’ award, which is awarded to the team which meets the following criteria:

Sparking others to embrace the culture of STEM through FIRST! This team embraces the culture of FIRST and shows what it means to be a team. This team makes a collective effort to make FIRST known throughout their school and community and sparks others to embrace FIRST's culture.

Robogranger member, James W, said:

“It was good to meet all of the different teams and find out how their robots worked.”

Max E added:

“It was my first time at the competition. It was interesting to see all the different teams and learn about how they were able to collaborate with other teams’ robots and their different abilities.”

Imogen G said:

“I enjoyed the whole thing. My favourite part was playing as a team and working together. Each team was unique in their own way and it inspires me to continue this path. Can't wait for the next tournament!”

The team meet weekly in an after-school club facilitated by Tom Crouch, assistant director of digital services at ���ϸ������� Grange Academies Trust. He said:

“The team has done brilliantly this year and should be proud of what they've accomplished. The award recognises the fact that they haven't just built a robot, but they've built enthusiasm for computing and engineering in local primary schools, inspiring the next generation.”