Club Overview

This is an after school club for Eagle Ridge students to explore their interests in STEM. Through this robotics club, students learn to design a robot by applying the engineering design principles, and learn problem solving techniques by working together as a team. Robots are built using hardware (aluminum, wood, polycarbonate etc), powered by Android technology, and can be coded using a variety of levels of Java-based programming. Club members receive guidance from mentors who are high school students from Academies of Loudoun (AOL), Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST) and various other high schools in Loudoun County. A selected group of club members form a travel team to participate in FIRST Tech Challenge robotic competitions.

FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Robotics

The club follows the FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics program format. Every year FTC announces a robotics game as the challenge for the students. Students design and build a robot that adheres to the game rules. The season starts from September and runs until February. More details about FTC can be read from the following links

• https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/ftc 

• What is FIRST Tech Challenge? (Video)

• FIRST is more than Robots (Video)

• Students have fun while learning STEM (Video)

• FTC Robotics Kick Off (Video)

How can I request to join the club?

The club registration will open first week of school. For the school year 2025-26, registrations will open on Friday, August 22nd, 8:00am. 

Club Sign up 

The club is run by parent volunteers with support from school PTA and staff. There is a limited capacity and we usually receive more registrations than we can accomodate. Students we cannot accomodate will be added to the waitlist and notified accordingly. There are several other amazing clubs at Eagle Ridge that students can participate. 

There will be a kick-off ceremony on "Saturday, September 6th" from 11:00am to 12:30pm starting with a presentation about the club, the new season game and Q&A. The kick-off will be hosted at ERMS cafeteria. All Eagle Ridge students and parents, who are interested in joining the club are welcome to participate in the kick-off event. 

What is the club meeting schedule?

The club meeting is planned on Mondays evening 6:30 to 7:30pm. Only enrolled students can participate in the club. There is no busing for the students. A parent is required to be present with the child during the club meeting. Parents also take turns to volunteer at the student tables to ensure that students are using the tools and hardware in a safe manner and provide guidance to the students to help them stay focused on tasks. Parent involvement is critical to the success of the program. This is not a program where parents can drop-off and pick-up their children.

What will students learn from the club?

Students will have opportunities to learn different skills including ideation, strategizing, engineering design, and programming. They work in a group environment collaborating and brainstorming with other students in the club. While students receive guidance from coaches & mentors, this is a platform for students to develop independent learning abilities through a diverse community of peers. Many students form long lasting relationship with their peers through the club. At the end of the year, students who find a deeper passion in robotics often start a community team to expand their skills.

Is there a fee?

There will be a fee collected to cover the costs of running the club. This fee will be waived based on demonstrated financial need. This fee covers the student t-shirt, annual registration fee, annual game sets etc. There may be an additional fee for those who are interested to be part of the travel team to participate in competitions. 

Club Resources

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