About

It all began with a group of people who dreamt of cultivating STEM interest within Ordean-East Middle School back in 2016.  That group had a background in FIRST LEGO League (FLL) and decided to take the next step and created a FIRST® Tech Challenge (FTC) team, the Devildogs.

The team continued recruiting 7th graders and saying goodbye to those students as they entered high school.  And then the pandemic hit and shut everything down, including team meetings and events.  By the summer we decided that we'd had had enough and figured out a way to meet virtually and continued to meet virtually throughout the 2020-21 season.  By the end of that season it was clear to us that we needed to find to find a way to sustain our team as well as find a new meeting location.  

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Enduring those hardships made us think outside the box.  During the summer of 2021 we developed a business plan, wrote Articles of Incorporation, and created Bylaws.  By the end of November 2021 the federal government granted us 501(c)(3) status. 

 

To help ensure our sustainability we created a FLL team, Spaceotics?, during the 2021-22 season.  Our team's success that first year inspired us to develop a 'feeder' program.  Students can now enter into our robotics programs as early as kindergarten and stay within the organization through their senior year of high school.  While we strive to build upon the students' knowledge from the previous year, the programs are set up in a way to allow new team members the ability to join at any age/level and come away feeling like they are an important asset to the team despite their previous experience.

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While the original founders of the team have since moved on, our current members continue to seek ways to improve their skills and knowledge of the innovative world of robotics.