The Sisters of the Motherboard is a school-based First Tech Challenge Team from Salem Academy. The team was founded during the 2013 – 2014 FTC Season (Block Party). The Sisters began with 8 students and two faculty members.
Our goal is to design, build, and program robots to compete in the challenge released each year by FIRST (For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). Our team has grown in spirit and abilities, since our start in the Fall of 2013. We have been excited to have the opportunity to compete at both the qualifier and state levels in North Carolina as well as the World Championship in Houston during the Velocity Vortex season.
Our team has worked hard for the past nine years to overcome the unique struggles of being a boarding school team. These struggles have included limited access to professional mentorship (initially), clearly defined academic requirements which make find team time challenging, as well as limited resources available through the school. Recent outreach opportunities and interactions with community members has opened the door to community mentors, especially in collaboration with Mounts Robotics Center and Kaleideum in Winston-Salem.
The Sisters’ energy, excitement, passion, and enthusiasm for learning about coding and robot design has made a permanent impact on Salem Academy. This impact includes, but is not limited to
The Sisters would like to thank FIRST and the FTC program for the wonderful opportunities to learn, explore, and dream!
Our goal is to design, build, and program robots to compete in the challenge released each year by FIRST (For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). Our team has grown in spirit and abilities, since our start in the Fall of 2013. We have been excited to have the opportunity to compete at both the qualifier and state levels in North Carolina as well as the World Championship in Houston during the Velocity Vortex season.
Our team has worked hard for the past nine years to overcome the unique struggles of being a boarding school team. These struggles have included limited access to professional mentorship (initially), clearly defined academic requirements which make find team time challenging, as well as limited resources available through the school. Recent outreach opportunities and interactions with community members has opened the door to community mentors, especially in collaboration with Mounts Robotics Center and Kaleideum in Winston-Salem.
The Sisters’ energy, excitement, passion, and enthusiasm for learning about coding and robot design has made a permanent impact on Salem Academy. This impact includes, but is not limited to
- Being the inspiration to start a for-credit year-long Robotics Team Course.
- Being the inspiration to start a for-credit semester class on Web Design
- Being the inspiration to start a for-credit year-long Computer Science Principles course.
- Being the inspiration to start two January Term Classes
- “Sisters of the Motherboard” Competition Team
- Learning about FTC (a course designed for those interested in the FTC program and a course which serves as training program for future Sisters)
- Starting three STEAM programs designed specifically for girls
- K-5 Girl Scout Camp in Cape Hatteras, NC (started Summer 2014)
- K-5 STEAM camp held at Salem Academy (started Summer 2016)
- 6th – 8th Robotics and Coding Camp held at Salem Academy (started Summer 2017)
- Designed specifically as an Introduction to First Tech Challenge
- Creating a second FTC team (#15333 Code Sisters) in the 2018-2019 season due to having 22% of the Salem Academy student body participating in the robotics program.
The Sisters commitment and passion for FIRST and all things related has earned them several awards and five opportunities to participate in the North Carolina State Competition. Additionally, they were chosen off of the waitlist to participate in the 2016 Velocity Vortex World Championship in Houston, TX.
The Sisters would like to thank FIRST and the FTC program for the wonderful opportunities to learn, explore, and dream!