Past Events
Take a peek at the countless events the team has been in throughout the years!
FTC State Competiton in Bismarck
We had our State Competition in Bismarck! It was a very hard competition and there was 16 teams who qualified to go. We didn't end up in any of the Finalist Aliances. We did, however work hard to cheer those teams who did on!
We placed in a few awards! We got 3rd in Design Award, 3rd in Connect Award, and 2nd in Think Award! We were proud of what we did throughout the season. No matter how rough we pushed through and made a lot of memories.
Spreading FIRST to Kindergarten
The Kindergarteners in Alexander Public School got one of their first experiences with the FIRST Tech Challenge program on January 26. Matthew, Brooke, and Garret went into their classroom to show off the robot and tell them about FIRST and STEM. The kids had a lot of fun seeing the robot in action.
Fargo FTC Regional Tournament
Saturday, January 20th, we competed in the East Fargo Regional Tournament. There were 24 teams to show up and we worked with 5 of them. We came in 8th place with the game. We, however, were not picked for an alliance. Our robot struggled, like an inconsistent grappling hook and airplane launcher. We went up and supported the semi-finalist and finalist teams while they competed.
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We had so much fun, and our hard work paid off. We got 3rd place in 3 awards; Design, Connect, and Motivate. We also got the 2nd place Think Award. The most exciting award we got was our 1st place Inspire Award which is sending us to state!
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We also did some team bonding like games and laser tag!
Bismarck FTC Regional Tournament
On Friday, January 12, the FTC #9963 team visited the Dakota Adventist Academy in Bismarck, North Dakota. 23 teams in total competed and the competition was hard. We had five alliances to work with. Our robot had many struggles throughout the entire competition, including our intake mechanism and claw. We, however, had a consistent drone launcher, which landed 30's 2/5 of the rounds, and a 20. The first two rounds had struggles that led to us not being able to launch. By the end, we felt decently accomplished and proud. Sadly, we didn't place in any awards. We are incredibly ready for the Fargo Regionals!!
Leather and Lace Concessions
On New Years Eve of 2023, the team worked concessions at the Leather and Lace Rodeo!
FTC Team Work Day
In early December, our team invited teams from all over North Dakota to join us and Tioga Tech Team #16630 at Alexander Public School for a team work day. The teams were able to work on their robots and programming with the helps of other teams around them. Tioga Tech Team also had a presentation on how to make a good portfolio. Everyone was able to practice and we even had team bonding activities! It was an enjoyable day for all teams involved to learn more and we are grateful for everyone who came.
Hi-5 STEAM Event
Our school has a Hi-5 club for Kindergarten through 5th grade. On November 17, half of the team did some Thanksgiving-themed activities with the kids to get them excited for the upcoming holiday! Other activities were just STEAM-themed!
Turkey Bingo
3rd Annual Haunted Museum
On October 20th-21st and the 28th, we hosted the third anual Haunted Museum hosted at the Lewis and Clark Trail Museum. We had 7 rooms, each with a different theme. Overall, we had about 300 people come through. We served cocoa and coffee in the cabin for those waiting. Everyone on the team helped and we even had many volunteers.
The first room you enter was a human-eating spider. The second room was a forest. The next room was the black market, sometimes with someone getting murdered. Going to the top floor, their was a cult room with a demon and a sacrifice. The last room on the top floor was based on The Ring. Going all the way downstairs, there was a room filled with haunted robot animals. The last room was pitch dark with jumpscares.
Minot, ND - STEAM Presentation
December 3rd
6 members of our team went to Edison Elementary School to give an informative presentation to 4th and 5th graders about FIRST and FTC. The group showed off the robot, programming, and the exoskeleten that members Marshall and Austin made in a hotel room. A lot of the kids were incredibly invested and the team had so much fun showing, explaining, and answering tons of questions.
Kick-Off 2023 & 24hour Build
September 10th
If we had to pick the most mentally demanding event we've done so far, it'd be the 24 hour challenge. We were given 24 hours to make a functioning robot for competition the following morning. We worked a ton on programming, design, and generally setting the structure of our team this day. We were split into groups of 3. One group focused on designing and building a robot. Another worked hard on figuring out the programming and automation for the robot. And finally, a 3rd team worked hard to understand the rules of the game and did a bunch of miscellaneous work. By 3 am, after all of the team had gone mad from lack of sleep, everyone passed out. Around 9 we woke up and got back to work, getting as much tasks done before evaluation. Many teams did good but we were rewarded with the best autonomous and given praise for our work in just 24 hours. Once it was all over, we took a really long nap on the way back home.
Alexander, ND - Old Settler's Day
August 31st - September 2nd
Old Settler's Day, a yearly event in which the community of Alexander comes together to do a bunch f fun stuff for 3 days straight. Throughout the weekend, we attended a ton of the events! On the 31st our team went to a volleyball game to cheer for our fellow team members Paiten and Julia who played. On the 1st of September, we competed in both the Chili Cook-Off and the Soapbox Derby, placing 2nd with our super cool derby car. On the third and final day we had our own float on the big finale parade, afterwards we held a booth at the vendor show and sold tons of snowcones. Overall, a really fun and productive 3 days for the team!
Back to School Bash
August 10th
The Lewis and Clark Trail Museum hosted a Back to School Bash/Vendor Show in which our team helped set up and even gave out food. We gave some wicked taco in a bag and baked potatos and even had a bouncy castle and face paint activities for kids!
Bismarck ND - Ignite Conference
The Ignite Coference was a three day long conference from June 7th-9th at the Gateway to Science Center in Bismarck. The first day was a panel where Marshall and Austin spoke about robotics along with 3 other students. On the second day, the panel was teachers only talking about robotics from their perspective. During this time, the two made an exoskeleton. On the third and final day, Marshall and Austin had a personal conference. Here, they spoke about FTC, the benefits, and even the exoskeleton.
June 7th - 9th
Spring Vendor and Craft Show
May 6th, 2023
We hosted a vendor show in our school's gym. We managed to gather around 20 vendors, our team being one of them. A lot of people sold a ton of goodies and we worked hard to make the event as successful as possible! Overall, great day.
Watford City, ND - T4
April 19th - 20th
This year our team hosted our own booth during the Watford T4 event. We explained the inner workings of FTC and our team, our accomplishments, and our future goals. And to keep the people in our groups engaged we split them off into two. An epic lego zipline challenge and we let the other side drive the robot at the time around! It got pretty chaotic because we had managed to super speed our robot and those driving crashed into a bunch of things.
STEAM Week
April 10th - April 14th
We hosted our very own exciting STEAM themed week. Every day of the week we came up with unique ideas that represent every letter in STEAM. Our first day, science, we dressed as mad scientists for the theme and made some elephant toothpaste, explaining the science behind chemical interactions. Second day, technology, we wore pajamas and played a tech themed Kahoot. Wednesday was engineering which means everyone looked like nerds and had an aerodynamic paper airplane battle. Thursday was art, so we dressed kooky and started the 'giving tree', which is a thing where a young elementary class writes nice things on a paper leaf and puts it on a paper tree on a wall of our school. On our final day, we had math, so top it all off, we dressed like teachers. Our final big event being duct tape a teacher. Miss Guida, Alexander's P.E. teacher, was the one who we taped up. We all had a blast hosting and interacting with our school during this week!
Govener's Showcase
March 8th 2023
Our team members, Paiten and Austin went to Bismarck to speak to the House of Represntatives and Senate. The two showed the robot off and talked about FTC. They used the robot to hand out treats and told many people about our team and season the wonderful season we had that year.
Bismarck, ND - Emerging Engineers
March 30th 2023
On March 30, 4 of our team members and 2 interns went to the University of Mary for the Emerging Engineers. Paiten, Austin, Julia, Eli, Ben, and Garrett worked together to build a catapult.
Bismarck, ND - State Competition
State took place at Bismarck's Career Academy! The competition was the best in the state end definitely tough. Excitedly enough, we took 4th in the robot game and chose the Wild Squirrels (22411) from Casselton, ND. We worked hard together and only were10 points away from making it into the finals. Once the competitio was over, we found out if we placed. Ang guess what? We did! We took 2nd place with the Connect Award and 3rd place with both the Motivate award and Inspire Award. Lastly, our coach, Mrs. White won the Compass Award!
Bismarck, ND - Dakota Adventist Academy State Qualifiers
Everything went twenty times better and then some at this next event. We added a smaller driver to the location, morale was much higher, and we even got more sleep! When we got to the competition, we crushed it. Our booth had improved tremendously, the team always had a job to do at any given moment, we aced our interview with the judges, and we did great with our robot. We even made it into the semi-finals with Jedi Tech (20782). But despite losing to some pretty beefy robots, we were proud of ourselves and were also looking forward to the
awards aspect of the competition. And thank god we did, because we qualified for several awards: Think Award, Connect Award, Motivate Award, and even 3rd place for the Inspire award! All to say, we made it to state, and you can guarantee we will be knocking people off their socks once we get there.
Fargo, ND - NDSU FTC State Qualifiers
The team decided to go to both qualifiers this year, the first one being Fargo! After an excruciatingly long drive of 6 hours and the whole team running in less than 5
hours of sleep, we went to the competition! It was the first time that many of us had been to an FTC competition. Mostnof us were nervous and unsure of what to do. We all tried our best as newcomers, and needless to say, we didn't make it to state. But it was a wonderful learning experience that brought most of us the well needed knowledge of what to do, how to do it, etc etc. On our way home, we were all confident and looking forward to the Bismarck qualifiers next week.
Gateway To Science Alexander STEM Event
January 4th
In an exciting turn of events, a wonderful program called Gateway To Science visited our school to teach all the students a little more about STEM with 11 fun activities. Our team helped set up and run each booth and activity, being held responsible with explaining the science behind each of the activities. Needless to say, it was such a fun event and no matter what grade or age group came by, they learned a little more and had fun doing it.
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Alexander Scrimmage
December 10th
We hosted our own scrimmage! During this scrimmage we had 9 teams from different schools visit to put their robots to use and make some changes here and there with the useful suggestions of other teams. Our team had a rough moment during the event but we made several realizations and adjustments to our robot and its design. But despite our setback, the scrimmage was a major success for all teams involved.
Christmas Stroll
December 1st
The team once again participated in the Christmas stroll this year. We did our favorite thing this year and sold some more baked goods! We had some dedicated baking days and made candies and some pastries. We had differing shifts and worked hard to sell our stuff. In the end we raised a fair bit of money!
Bake Sale Williston
November 19th
We planned a month in advance for this event and even had 2 days of group baking to bring the freshest and best baked goods to sell! From cake pops to big pies, the team sold various goods and even got to see some of the other booths and buy some things. It was a fun event and in the end we raised a fair bit of money.
Family Fun Night/Turkey Bingo
November 17th
Half the members of the team assisted in helping a family fun night that was being hosted by Family Fun Night. In this event the team helped with turkey bingo alongside different types of games. The winners won different types of prizes like turkey, games, or pie. And to acquire a bingo card they had to bring in at least 1 canned food so we can donate it to people in need.
Haunted Museum
October 29-30th
The team had been preparing for this Halloween event since the school year began! And once it came it was a hit. The team set up 8 differently styled spooky rooms inside our local museum, each with their own scares and well thought out plans/decorations. We ran this event for 2 days, the 2nd day going all out with new and unforgiving spooks. Despite the event being free, we ended up making around $1400.00 from generous donations from satisfied people of our community.
STEM Day At Williston
October 26th
Our coach and 2 members of our team, Mae and Isaac, went to a STEM event in Williston. They interacted with 8th grade students from 9 different schools in the area. They shared with the students about our robotic program program and allowed them to do a STEM activity that involved building candy corn towers.
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Spooky Themed STEM night
Alexander School
October 25th 2022
What better way to bring STEM activities to kids than by appealing to the Halloween theme and making spooky activities? The team found an opportunity to hold an event at our school regarding creativity and critical thinking. Each member was held responsible to their own little booth of fun things to do. We had varying things, but needless to say, it was a hit with the kids and a successful event overall. We even raised some money!
B.I.G. Event Minot
September 25th 2022
The FTC team took place in the Believe In Girls event to represent FIRST and teach girl scouts a little about what we do and our robot. We also made a fun little STEM game for them to try and play that involved thinking and creativity alike. It was a game that involved having to create a stable and tall tower out of dry noodles and marshmallows.
Event Kickoff September 10th 2022
This year the FTC team went to the kickoff that took place in Bismarck. It was the perfect opportunity for the team to get a little used to going to events with each other. Shortly after watching the event and field game revealed to us, the team got some quick ideas in. We also got the opportunity to talk to other teams present and better associate ourselves with them!
Old Settlers 2022
This years team like past years took part in Alexander's Old Settlers. This event is always a good way to get connected with our community, while also raising money and spreading F.I.R.S.T.
Washington D.C. Trip
Over the summer 10 members of our team from the 2021-2022 year went on advocation trip to Washington D.C. The members talked to senators and representatives about getting more money for schools to have STEM related organizations and classes. We were not only there for business, we like to have fun too. So we got to see several monuments and museums, as well as do several more activities around the city.
Duct Tape's Revenge
April 16, 2021
On the 16th of April the FTC team hosted another tape related event, this time two of our beloved faculty members, Mrs. Taylor and Mr. Chad, and of course, voted on by the students. This year the students were seemingly much more excited to see someone taped on the wall, because we ended up raising $900 dollars to further our movement in FTC.
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Old Settlers 2021
Every year Alexander celebrates "Old Settlers", a celebration of the people who made Alexander what it is, the FTC team participated with a stand in the park. Demonstrating the robot and showing off the latest version of last year's soap box derby car. After multiple drawings, ideas and hours of work, the derby car was ready to go down the hill; and win last place. Though we didn't place in the downhill race, we still won the pushing race and had a cart we were all very proud of, leaving the day happy with what we did.
Basketball Court
February 13, 2021
Back in November of 2020, the FTC team began work on a large, and ambitious project of building a basketball court in the Alexander Public Park. The park was made in hopes of providing a place for the students of Alexander to play basketball. They finished the project on February, 13th 2021.
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Park Board meeting
The FTC team wanted a basketball court at the local public park but had to go through the park board to raise money.
KUM-TV interview
January 30, 2020
Our team caught the attention of KUM-TV and we were interviewed by one of their news crew. You can read more about this on our "us in the news page".
Scrimmage
January 17th, 2020
At the beginning of 2020, nobody knew that a pandemic would sweep the world that year, everyone was going about their daily lives, including us, we attended a scrimmage at a nearby boarding school and won.
December 15, 2019
Santa in the Park
Though a lot of what we do is to help fund our robotics efforts, taking a picture with Santa was free of charge, though we still got quite a few donations.
Dodgeball/ Vendor show
2nd Annual
Dodge ball is a classic game for most students, a vendor show almost never attracts younger generations. However, mixing the two brings in crowds of all people.
Duct Tape Allard
October 16, 2019
Event Kick off
September 7th, 2019
Soap Box Derby
July 9, 2019
The soap box derby car was manufactured from angle iron and old bicycle parts, put together like a physical kit bash.
Washington DC NAC Confrence
June 19-26, 2019
After spending most of the year raising money to get to Washington DC, we were finally able to get there and give our presentation.
Dodge Ball Tournament
May 18, 2019
We hosted a dodge ball tournament in our school to help raise money to get to Washington DC that year.
Arnegard Vendor Show
June 1st and June 8th 1019
T4 Presentation
March 21, 2019
We traveled to Watford City to show 6th, 7th and 8th graders FTC and what we do as a team.
FRC competition
March 15-17 2019
After the 2018 season we were invited to show FTC at the highest level of FIRST, Fist Robotic Competition or, FRC. We went to one of their events and showed our robot which seemed really small in comparison to their giant robots.
JRFH/NDSU extension presentation
February 28, 2019
A representative from both Jump Rope For Heart and NDSU came by and we presented the idea of FIRST spreading across North Dakota.
Fx News TV Interview
February 20, 2019
Our team was interviewed by FX News to give our input on the importance of STEM in schools.
Governor's Technology Showcase
February 13, 2019
Our team had the opportunity to show how we have used technology in our school. We even allowed Governor Burgum to attempt the ramp challenge of that year and have fun.
