About the Team
Founded twenty ago in 1998, as part of an outreach initiative of Campbell’s Soup and Siemens International, with two mentors and ten student members, Team #203 has grown from its humble beginnings. In 2018, we have multiple school based and volunteer mentors, over seventy student participants, an active family booster organization, are mentoring three rookie FRC teams, and have an outreach program that connects throughout Camden County, the State of NJ and beyond. A generation later, we rely heavily on our past through an active alumni base and experience, we stand firmly on the present with very engaged family members, mentors and students, and we are in touch with the future through outreach programs promoting FIRST’s mission of spreading the word of STEAM.
We have always been a school based team at the Gloucester Township Campus of Camden County Technical Schools (CCTS). Established in 1928, CCTS is the county vocational-technical school district for Camden County, NJ, with the primary mission of providing Career and Technical Education to its citizens. The district, in 1998, had the foresight to work with its industry partners to get involved with what was still a new concept in education - a FIRST Robotics Team. We were originally made up of students who were from traditional vocational trade programs in the school, creating early success with their mechanical capabilities. As a direct result of our early successes in promoting the need for a strong STEAM workforce and skills throughout the county, the school district met this increasing demand by starting a Pre-Engineering Career Academy in 2002, followed by an Information Technology Academy in 2010, and a Medical Arts Academy in 2012. The district strongly embraced the message of FIRST, and utilized our students and robot to reach out to middle schools in the county to promote these new programs and recruit eighth grade students to attend CCTS as their high school of choice. Through our team’s efforts, the demand from county middle school students and their parents to participate in the high-end STEAM programs, have continued to outpace the available slots in the programs within the county. This increasing demand has allowed the district to increase the number of STEAM instructors and student slots. The need for additional STEAM educational opportunities has been met through the establishment of Pre-Engineering and Information Technology Career Programs at our district’s sister school at the Pennsauken Campus.
Through the ongoing and expanding presence of our team, FIRST Robotics now permeates the culture of Camden County Technical Schools. Through this embracement of the value and need for FIRST as a central focus of STEAM program expansion, CCTS has established for the 2018 season, under the mentorship of our team, FRC Team #6921 – PennTech Tornadoes Robotics at our Pennsauken Campus. This team will also compliment the outreach of our team in spreading the word of FIRST and the value of STEAM throughout Camden County and our state. This new team has been staffed by two school based instructors/mentors, and is supported via district funds and a NASA rookie grant.
We continue to contribute to the expansion of FIRST programs in a number of different ways. In addition to Team #6921, we have helped establish and are actively mentoring FRC Team #7024, The Enforcers of the Police Athletic League of Egg Harbor Township, NJ. For the last year, students and mentors have been collaborating with our counterparts by assisting them in all aspects of the FIRST Robotics experience, including technical support, administrative guidance, and peer to peer dialogue. Recently, our team was contacted by another local rookie FRC team, team #7110, Haddon Heights High School for our assistance. Students and mentors have visited their program providing guidance, loaned them material/supplies, and other support. We will continue throughout the build and competition seasons to support these three new rookie teams to ensure their initial success and provide them the framework for sustainability.
In January, our team members volunteered and supported the FIRST Lego League competition at Glassboro Intermediate School. As the only FRC team to attend, we showed the FLL and Jr.FLL teams about FIRST Robotics and allowed them to drive our 2017 Steamworks robot. Additionally, we mentor and support four newly started Lego programs at sending elementary schools in our county. Through several onsite activities throughout the year, we will continue to host FLL teams from throughout the area for STEAM and robotics workshops.
We reach out into the community in many innovative ways. Every spring, we sponsor our school district’s Technology Challenge program for middle school students in our county. Through this event, teams of middle school students compete in a design/build technology challenge, a STEAM knowledge bowl, an essay and presentation, and other related competitive elements. This program, allows students to be engaged in a STEAM competition that encourages their appetite for our STEAM career programs in our district, and our FIRST Robotics programs. Starting in 2017, the team began offering regular workshops for Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts aligned with their STEAM programs, providing an opportunity to earn badges. Every summer since 2014, we host annual Summer STEAM Camps that allow middle school students in the county to gain hands on experiences and learn about Robotics programs. For disadvantaged students, our team provides scholarships to our Summer Campers. In December, we hosted a robotics competition at our school, allowing over fifty teams from all across New Jersey to participate. Additionally, in June 2, 2018, we will be hosting an off-season FRC event called the SOUPer Bowl.
With the positive impact robotics has left in our school and district as a whole, we have made it a priority to spread the word of FIRST. In 2017, we gave a presentation to middle schoolers at Lockheed Martin in Moorestown, NJ during Engineers Week. We demonstrated our prototype robot, inspiring students to take part in STEAM. From this experience, our team was able to create a partnership with Lockheed Martin and became one of their sponsored FRC teams able to influence and demonstrate what FIRST Robotics is all about.
For the last four years in a row, we have been invited to the New Jersey School Boards Association Conference in Atlantic City, NJ, where we are the only FRC team to represent FIRST. We present to nearly 10,000 school board members and administrators from all over the state to encourage them to start a FIRST program in their school. Through this opportunity, we have impacted many school districts understanding of the FIRST family of programs throughout our state. As the featured STEAM exhibitor of the conference, we continue to serve as the invited ambassador of FIRST/MAR to the NJ School Boards Association annually.
Our students can gain various skill sets that benefit them in the future. The family environment that our team brings makes it easier for students to come out of their shell, and meet new people. Our members gain substantial experience early on in their STEAM education journey, as the build season and competitions provide many valuable lessons. Our team is proud to have many successful alumni, many of which graduate and go on to further their education, pursue a military career, or join the workforce. One of our proudest accomplishments is seeing alumni return as mentors for our and other FRC teams, demonstrating the culmination of our mission as a FIRST program.
In 2018, our team has been rebranded as the SOUPer Bots honoring our longtime primary sponsor Campbell’s Soup, but still holding true to our origins as One TUFF Team - One Team United For FIRST. As we move into our third decade of FIRST Competition, it is our well-known spirit as a team, our pride as a competitor, our commitment to FIRST, and our dedication to STEAM that will sustain us well into the future. From our humble beginnings, to now a substantial contributor to STEAM education, Team #203 remembers FIRST’s idea that it is indeed, ‘More Than Robots.’ When looking at the past, present, and future of the team, it is evident that we must continue our ideals and our commitment to ‘Cooperation’ and ‘Gracious Professionalism’ as the core beliefs leading to the ultimate success of our and all FIRST teams.
As we continue to evolve as a FIRST team and reflect on the last twenty years, we find it challenging to adequately measure the impact that Team #203 has had. When considering nearly the one thousand alumni of Team #203, the thousands of middle schoolers served, the thousands of family members involved, the measurable increase of STEAM programs in our county, and the new FIRST programs started, we take pride in the significant impact on our school, community, county, and state. As a contributing member of the FIRST family, we believe firmly in the ideals of FIRST and strive every day to live up to the expectations of spreading the message of FIRST and the value of STEAM education.
We have always been a school based team at the Gloucester Township Campus of Camden County Technical Schools (CCTS). Established in 1928, CCTS is the county vocational-technical school district for Camden County, NJ, with the primary mission of providing Career and Technical Education to its citizens. The district, in 1998, had the foresight to work with its industry partners to get involved with what was still a new concept in education - a FIRST Robotics Team. We were originally made up of students who were from traditional vocational trade programs in the school, creating early success with their mechanical capabilities. As a direct result of our early successes in promoting the need for a strong STEAM workforce and skills throughout the county, the school district met this increasing demand by starting a Pre-Engineering Career Academy in 2002, followed by an Information Technology Academy in 2010, and a Medical Arts Academy in 2012. The district strongly embraced the message of FIRST, and utilized our students and robot to reach out to middle schools in the county to promote these new programs and recruit eighth grade students to attend CCTS as their high school of choice. Through our team’s efforts, the demand from county middle school students and their parents to participate in the high-end STEAM programs, have continued to outpace the available slots in the programs within the county. This increasing demand has allowed the district to increase the number of STEAM instructors and student slots. The need for additional STEAM educational opportunities has been met through the establishment of Pre-Engineering and Information Technology Career Programs at our district’s sister school at the Pennsauken Campus.
Through the ongoing and expanding presence of our team, FIRST Robotics now permeates the culture of Camden County Technical Schools. Through this embracement of the value and need for FIRST as a central focus of STEAM program expansion, CCTS has established for the 2018 season, under the mentorship of our team, FRC Team #6921 – PennTech Tornadoes Robotics at our Pennsauken Campus. This team will also compliment the outreach of our team in spreading the word of FIRST and the value of STEAM throughout Camden County and our state. This new team has been staffed by two school based instructors/mentors, and is supported via district funds and a NASA rookie grant.
We continue to contribute to the expansion of FIRST programs in a number of different ways. In addition to Team #6921, we have helped establish and are actively mentoring FRC Team #7024, The Enforcers of the Police Athletic League of Egg Harbor Township, NJ. For the last year, students and mentors have been collaborating with our counterparts by assisting them in all aspects of the FIRST Robotics experience, including technical support, administrative guidance, and peer to peer dialogue. Recently, our team was contacted by another local rookie FRC team, team #7110, Haddon Heights High School for our assistance. Students and mentors have visited their program providing guidance, loaned them material/supplies, and other support. We will continue throughout the build and competition seasons to support these three new rookie teams to ensure their initial success and provide them the framework for sustainability.
In January, our team members volunteered and supported the FIRST Lego League competition at Glassboro Intermediate School. As the only FRC team to attend, we showed the FLL and Jr.FLL teams about FIRST Robotics and allowed them to drive our 2017 Steamworks robot. Additionally, we mentor and support four newly started Lego programs at sending elementary schools in our county. Through several onsite activities throughout the year, we will continue to host FLL teams from throughout the area for STEAM and robotics workshops.
We reach out into the community in many innovative ways. Every spring, we sponsor our school district’s Technology Challenge program for middle school students in our county. Through this event, teams of middle school students compete in a design/build technology challenge, a STEAM knowledge bowl, an essay and presentation, and other related competitive elements. This program, allows students to be engaged in a STEAM competition that encourages their appetite for our STEAM career programs in our district, and our FIRST Robotics programs. Starting in 2017, the team began offering regular workshops for Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts aligned with their STEAM programs, providing an opportunity to earn badges. Every summer since 2014, we host annual Summer STEAM Camps that allow middle school students in the county to gain hands on experiences and learn about Robotics programs. For disadvantaged students, our team provides scholarships to our Summer Campers. In December, we hosted a robotics competition at our school, allowing over fifty teams from all across New Jersey to participate. Additionally, in June 2, 2018, we will be hosting an off-season FRC event called the SOUPer Bowl.
With the positive impact robotics has left in our school and district as a whole, we have made it a priority to spread the word of FIRST. In 2017, we gave a presentation to middle schoolers at Lockheed Martin in Moorestown, NJ during Engineers Week. We demonstrated our prototype robot, inspiring students to take part in STEAM. From this experience, our team was able to create a partnership with Lockheed Martin and became one of their sponsored FRC teams able to influence and demonstrate what FIRST Robotics is all about.
For the last four years in a row, we have been invited to the New Jersey School Boards Association Conference in Atlantic City, NJ, where we are the only FRC team to represent FIRST. We present to nearly 10,000 school board members and administrators from all over the state to encourage them to start a FIRST program in their school. Through this opportunity, we have impacted many school districts understanding of the FIRST family of programs throughout our state. As the featured STEAM exhibitor of the conference, we continue to serve as the invited ambassador of FIRST/MAR to the NJ School Boards Association annually.
Our students can gain various skill sets that benefit them in the future. The family environment that our team brings makes it easier for students to come out of their shell, and meet new people. Our members gain substantial experience early on in their STEAM education journey, as the build season and competitions provide many valuable lessons. Our team is proud to have many successful alumni, many of which graduate and go on to further their education, pursue a military career, or join the workforce. One of our proudest accomplishments is seeing alumni return as mentors for our and other FRC teams, demonstrating the culmination of our mission as a FIRST program.
In 2018, our team has been rebranded as the SOUPer Bots honoring our longtime primary sponsor Campbell’s Soup, but still holding true to our origins as One TUFF Team - One Team United For FIRST. As we move into our third decade of FIRST Competition, it is our well-known spirit as a team, our pride as a competitor, our commitment to FIRST, and our dedication to STEAM that will sustain us well into the future. From our humble beginnings, to now a substantial contributor to STEAM education, Team #203 remembers FIRST’s idea that it is indeed, ‘More Than Robots.’ When looking at the past, present, and future of the team, it is evident that we must continue our ideals and our commitment to ‘Cooperation’ and ‘Gracious Professionalism’ as the core beliefs leading to the ultimate success of our and all FIRST teams.
As we continue to evolve as a FIRST team and reflect on the last twenty years, we find it challenging to adequately measure the impact that Team #203 has had. When considering nearly the one thousand alumni of Team #203, the thousands of middle schoolers served, the thousands of family members involved, the measurable increase of STEAM programs in our county, and the new FIRST programs started, we take pride in the significant impact on our school, community, county, and state. As a contributing member of the FIRST family, we believe firmly in the ideals of FIRST and strive every day to live up to the expectations of spreading the message of FIRST and the value of STEAM education.
