当你想到学生们在放学后经过数月的训练来磨练他们的能力和练习他们的动作，以便能够与其他学校的最优秀学生竞争，你会想到什么？大多数人会想到足球、篮球或羽毛球，但是在4月5日和6日，我们高中的最优秀未来科学家和工程师将展示他们所磨练和练习的技能和动作，参加FIRST机器人竞赛（FRC）。

今年的比赛是团队在2019年的前六周制作一台机器人参加名为“深空”的比赛。

这是一支来自纳尔逊·曼德拉高中的团队7277的第二年参赛。他们的安全队长April N.计划在毕业后追求护理职业，并担任团队的工具组织管理、预防和发现不安全情况以及确保团队所有成员平安回家的职务。

“FIRST让我看到了自己的潜力。机器人从来不是我的兴趣，但是看到自己可以作为团队的一部分参与其中，让它变得非常有趣。”

去年，7277团队在西部加拿大区域赛中荣获“新秀全明星”称号，对团队的一些成员来说，这场比赛成为了一个顿悟。这个荣誉带来了前往休斯顿参加世界锦标赛的邀请，与CBE团队4627和4733分别来自欧内斯特·曼宁和德雷普斯卡雷特高中一起竞争。

“休斯顿为我们学校开启了一片新的竞争领域。”April补充道。“竞争不仅仅局限于体育领域，在其他领域也可以。能够去参加锦标赛并亲身体验这一切真的很激动人心，特别是对于新秀来说。我之前从未与任何体育团队有过这样的经历，能够代表我们学校出场感觉太不可思议了。”

FRC比赛中的一切都以这样一个想法为基础：所有的“运动员”学生都是未来的STEM或相关领域的专业人士。他们都遵守着优雅专业的准则，即因为学生们都在为自己的领域的成功而努力，所以他们应该互相支持和鼓励对手；这导致了一些重要的体育精神事件，如提供专业知识和零件，帮助排除电气和代码问题。

“这个项目没有改变我对未来STEM的看法，但它打开了我的眼界，让我看到后续学业中其他关于健康和安全的选择。”April说。“对于其他团队成员来说，这拓宽了他们对工程学或计算机科学的认识。”

比赛将于4月5日星期五上午8点30分开始，在纳尔逊·曼德拉高中主要体育馆进行，并将持续至6日傍晚结束。比赛将有来自阿尔伯塔、美国、墨西哥、土耳其、中国和澳大利亚的35支队伍参加。入场免费，欢迎公众前来观看和为学生们加油，共同竞争成为加拿大落基山脉冠军的荣誉。

​When you think of students spending months of after school sessions honing their abilities and practicing their movements so that they can take the field and compete against the best students from other schools across the city, province, and world, what do you think of? Most of us default to football, basketball, or badminton, but on April 5 and 6 the best future scientists and engineers in our high schools will show off the skills they have honed and movements they’ve practiced in the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC).

This year’s game features students competing in the game Deep Space with a robot that they fabricated in the first six weeks of 2019.

This is the second year for one of those programs, team 7277 from Nelson Mandela High School, and their Safety Captain April N. April is set to pursue a career in nursing after graduating and acts as the team’s manager of organizing tools, preventing and calling out unsafe situations, and making sure that everyone on the team goes home healthy.

“FIRST showed me that I could do more than I thought. Robotics was never my interest but to see that I could participate as part of a team made it incredibly interesting.”

This competition was an epiphany for some members of 7277 last year after they received the honor of being named Rookie All Stars at the Western Canadian Regional. That honor came with an invite to Houston to join the CBE’s teams 4627 and 4733 from Ernest Manning and Dr. E.P. Scarlett high schools in competing at a world championship.

“Houston opened a new field of competition for our school.” April added. “Competing didn’t need to be just in athletics, it could be in other areas. It’s really exciting to go to a championship and experience that, especially as rookies. I’ve never experienced that with any athletic team and being there to represent our school was incredible.”

Everything that happens in a FRC competition hinges on the idea that all of the student “athletes” are future professionals in a STEM or related field. They all adhere to a code of gracious professionalism, which says because students are all working towards success in their fields, they should work to support and encourage their competition; leading to significant events of sportsmanship, such as lending expertise and parts as well as helping troubleshoot electrical and code problems.

“This program didn’t change how I felt about my future in STEM but it opened up my eyes to other options such as health and safety beyond what my path in post secondary could be.” April said. “For the other team members it broadened their horizons about what engineering or computer science could be for them.”

The competition commences on Friday, April 5 at 8:30 a.m. and runs until the late afternoon on the 6th in the Nelson Mandela High School main gym. It will feature 35 teams including competitors from across Alberta, the United States, Mexico, Turkey, China, and Australia. Admission is free and the public is welcome to come watch and cheer on the students as they compete for the honor of being Canadian Rockies Champions.