Between April 27-30, the ladies of the acclaimed Iron Maidens made the trip to St. Louis, taking part in the World Championship for robotics and winning the awe-inspiring Connect Award.

This victory is astounding, with the Iron Maidens being created only one year ago. With the team almost making it to super regionals last year, the drive for success this year has definitely propelled them to the top.

This motivation started during their off season, where they went to outreach activities to meet their mission statement: “We seek to promote STEM and robotics through our outreach, especially for young children and girls.” Some of these activities included meeting with the Land O’ Lakes Company and participating in the opening of the FAB Lab.

Their first competition of the year was the North Branch Qualifier. For this and future tournaments, the team created their robot, Lady Steel.

“Our robot can dump climbers (figurines) into a shelter, push debris into the floor goal, hit two ziplines, and push itself into the high zone during the endgame,” said member Cori Roberts.

It was at the North Branch Qualifier that the Iron Maidens won the Inspire Award–the highest award a team can receive–given to those that embody the challenge of FIRST, which means showing professionalism and cooperation, as well as doing the best in the judged categories.

The Rochester Qualifier was next, where they again had success, earning the 2nd place Inspire award, the Connect Award (given to the team that best utilizes community outreach to promote STEM and robotics) and the Compass Award (which recognized the extraordinary guidance of the Iron Maiden’s coach, Nick Aarestad.)

Soon the Iron Maidens made it to the Minnesota State Tournament, winning the Think Award–which is given to the team that best communicates their engineering design process through their Engineering Notebook–and the Promote Award, which is given to the team that creates the best written response centered around the prompt “Now that I’ve succeeded in FIRST…”

Soon the team pushed towards the North Super Regional, where they were first for the Connect Award, second for the Promote Award, and third for the Compass Award.

All this led up to the all-important World Championship, the most important competition the Iron Maidens have ever faced.

“On the Wednesday of the competition there was judging, robot inspection, and field inspection,” said Cori Roberts. “Then it was matches from there onto Friday. Finals started on Saturday, and it was there that we won the Connect Award and the World Championship.”

“I’m still trying to process it all!” said member Barbara Tan. “It’s such a big award. It’s at the WORLD championship and we never thought we could make it this far. We’re now the best in the world for promoting STEM.”

The Iron Maidens are now busier than ever, planning to do more outreach events over the summer. Their biggest event will be in Washington, D.C., where the ladies will meet with legislators to work on important STEM issues.

Congratulations, Iron Maidens, on winning the World Championship! Our school can’t wait to see what you have in store for the years to come!

To learn more about the Iron Maidens, check out their website: https://sites.google.com/site/ironmaidensftc/