In the Beginning:
Constellation Robotics is an organization made up of students and staff of Parma Community High School. We have competed in a variety of different competitions, but our main focus is FRC. We are team 4780, the Tenacious Drones. We got our start in December of 2012, when a parent suggested that our Science Club get involved in FRC. Our teachers looked into it and thought it was a cool idea, so they registered us for the Buckeye Regional. Our 2 science teachers at the time went to Tri-C on kickoff day to get our kit of parts. Soon afterward, we had our first official meeting. We jumped into FRC head-first, learning as we went along. Our team was about 9 kids, with 2 parents involved. Our rookie year was rough, but somehow, we managed to get a robot put together and working by bag and tag night. I don't think that anyone knew what we were in for when we decided to sign up, but we made it work. Since then, our team has evolved a lot. We've found several sponsors, and several mentors who have continued to support us as the team grows.
Programming:
Cad/Designs:
Safety:
OutReach:
We also have made efforts to teach the children in our community about FIRST. In 2019, we held a “Breakfast with Santa”/craft fair fundraiser for our team. At the event, children and their parents were able to see our robot, 3D printer, and team awards. Additionally, we had a “STEM day” at Parma Community Intermediate where we introduced the students to FRC and FLL. At this event, we did a demonstration of our robot and the FLL field and robot. After the event, the students were able to play “catch” with our robot. These events are important to our community because it teaches children that they could someday build a robot too. Many of these children had no knowledge of FIRST or robotics before these events and we introduced them to a whole new world.Team 4780 tries to involve ourselves in the community as much as possible. Every year, our team holds an alumni homecoming event in order to keep past members updated on our team. In previous years, the Tenacious Drones has hosted a formal dance. In 2020, we collaborated with our high school’s choir to make a FIRST parody song. Our team wrote the parody, and the choir performed and recorded the song. The music video is currently in production, and we hope to share it with FRC events this spring. This has brought our school community together and communicated the idea that FIRST is about more than robots.
FLL Teams:
FIRST Lego League Team 42384, The Parma Community Hyperflashes, was founded in 2018 by members of the Tenacious Drones. The team to this day continues to help our school's middle school student's learn about FIRST, LEGO's, and robotics.