It all started with the challenge in January. Aerial Assist would be the game, and the goal was to chuck, launch, and fling 24-inch balls through the St. Louis sky and into waiting goals. The machine used to do that? That was up to the students at Dallas’ Jesuit College Prep. Those 32 kids—the All Sparks—spent the next six weeks designing, building, and troubleshooting their robot. In March, they advanced in the regional FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition rounds and earned their ticket to compete in Missouri at the end of April. All they did there was take out nearly 400 squads to win the school’s first FIRST Robotics Competition championship.
