The Phoenix Union High School District is the largest district in Arizona consisting of sixteen schools. Out of the sixteen, currently only four schools (Bioscience, Carl Hayden, Metro Tech, North) participate in FIRST Regional Competition (FRC). The primary goal of Dragon Robotics is to establish a “District Alliance” composed of all the Phoenix Union High School District teams to create and sustain participation in FRC for each school. Team 2375 has begun to include teams from Chavez, North, rookie team Metro Tech, and Hall-of-Fame team Falcon Robotics, team 842. The partnership has included presenting at each other’s festivals, traveling to tournaments together, mentoring, and sharing materials. Aside from the initial goal of creating a “District Alliance”, the ultimate goal is to have an FRC team within every school in the district. To set a foundation for this goal, the officers of Dragon Robotics spoke at Metro Tech to get the school interested in robotics and spread the message of FIRST. The team has also assisted and mentored, The MetroKnights; fledgling FRC and FTC teams. By working together, sharing notes, and hosting workshops, The Dragons have not only improved the MetroKnight’s skills, but also their own. To spread teamwork, The Dragons and The MetroKnights worked on creating a practice field for the Duel In The Desert scrimmage that resulted in benefitting all teams. The benefits of this Alliance include: greater connection, and support structures for each team to create a sustainable program in the Phoenix Union High School District, which is what The Dragons are striving towards.
District Alliance
