We are a competitive robotics team, built upon community. Thunderstorm allows students from any school to join if they are between 13 and 18.
Here at Thunderstorm, students learn aspects of:
• Leadership
• Responsibility
• 3D Modeling
• Electrical Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering
• Software Engineering
• Machining
• Sorting Drill Bits
• Web Design
What Is Thunderstorm Robotics?
Thunderstorm Robotics is a FRC team open to students ages 13 to 18. Primarily focused on building robots for the annual First Robotics Competition.
More than Just Robotics
Thunderstorm Robotics teaches more then just machinery. Regardless of interests and future asperations in or outside of a technical field, students can learn and hone many skills that will help them throughout their lives for years to come. Just a few of these examples are:
Fundraising – Thunderstorm Robotic gains a portion of its savings through fundraising, such as working with restaurants or stores, garage sales, car washes and bake sales.
Leadership – Thunderstorm Robotics has been coaching youth to grow their leadership skills. When students are building, designing or at competition, leadership is an important skill to know to teach new members, make sure everyone is working safely, or when working on the robot.
Teamwork – During both competition and build season, teamwork is essential. Thunderstorm Robotics has been coaching its members to work as a team and teaching how communication between students when machining and driving is necessary to create and run both a robot and a team. Even during the matches, different teams must work together to achieve their goals and win.
Public Speaking – In the past, members have gone door to door with sponsorship packets giving a small presentation to businesses that may be interested. At competition, team members must also explain the build process and robot design to the judges which in turn allows the members to practice public speaking skills that they can use throughout their lives.
Website Design – The members of Thunderstorm Robotics are constantly designing, writing, editing and managing this website themselves to keep it up to date through blogging, adding photos, videos and competition updates.
Community Service – Thunderstorm Robotics works in their community to help it prosper, whether through packing sacks of food for those who need it, or volunteering to help organizations like Samaritan’s Purse by loading shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child.
Record Keeping – During the build season, members keep track of their progress at each meeting by updating notebooks for future reference, taking photos and adding new information to the team website.
Social Skills – Thunderstorm Robotics helps teach its members social skills and many members have made long-lasting friendships or strengthened preexisting ones throughout their years in thunderstorm robotics.