Wheaton Warrenville South Educators Volunteer to Sponsor State Qualifying Robotics Team

Mr. Matt Scheffler and Mr. Peter Gresk are both science educators from Wheaton Warrenville South High School. They volunteered to sponsor the WWS Robotics Team due to the increasing demand among students and a drive among Science educators to offer extracurricular activities that focus on the sciences. To learn more about the FIRST Robotics Competition, please visit their website at www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc.

The WWS Robotics Team qualified for the State Competition that took place on February 21 at ITT in Chicago. To qualify, the team competed in two tournaments where they made it through to the semifinals. They’ve experienced a great deal of success this year earning the Inspire Award from the Chicago Math and Science Academy tournament. The Inspire Award is given to the team that the judges feel truly embodies the challenge of the program. This team serves as an inspiration to what this program, and the young minds involved, can accomplish. The team that receives this award performed well in all judging categories and was chosen by the judges as a model FIRST Tech Challenge Team. The judges use Match performance, observations made during interviews and in the pit area, the Team’s Engineering Notebook, and performance on the playing field in determining the winner.

At the Batavia qualifier, the WWS Robotics team won the Think Award. The Think Award is given to the team that the judges feel best understands the role of the engineering notebook in the design process. The Engineering Notebook is the key reference for judges to help identify the most deserving team. The team’s Engineering Notebook focuses on the design and builds stages of the team’s robot and exemplifies their journey as a team and engineers.

The WWS Robotics team is currently busy upgrading their robot and working on fundraising for additional parts and supplies for the robot. They have received tremendous support from the parents of our members, the WWS Science Department and WWS Activities. If interested in donating, please contact Mr. Matt Scheffler at Matthew.Scheffler@cusd200.org.

According to Mr. Scheffler, “After the state championships, our team is planning on attending “Explore More” days at three elementary schools teaching robotics classes. Our team has been very active in the community. We have volunteered at the Dupage Children’s Museum on their “Robotics Night” and several of our students help mentor another robotics team for younger students.”

Thank you, Mr. Scheffler and Mr. Gresk, for volunteering your time to mentor and sponsor students on the WWS Robotics Team.