The TriSonics, our High School team, compete nationwide in the FRC portion of FIRST. In January, a game is announced to all teams at the same time. Then, we all have 6 weeks to design, build, and program our robots. After, comes the build season! This consists of 6 weekends starting at the beginning of March and goes until the second week of April. Finally, the world championship is held the last week of April.

The HexaSonics, our Middle School team, competes in the FTC portion of FIRST. In September, a game is released, in which you have until the end of november-ish to build, then competitions start. The state championship, if we qualify, is in the middle of December. Following the state tournament, is Super Regionals, in Iowa for us. Then, ending at the World Championship in St. Louis with the rest of the FIRST programs.

We have 3 FLL teams in Allendale. They each are from Allendale Public Schools, in which they get a game in September and have until the 3rd weekend in November-ish for the competition. The State championship is in the middle of December. There are two state championships in Michigan, so depending on the competition we compete at, determines if we go to the state championship in Flint or Monroe. Every year these switch on and off for which tournament will send a team to the World Championship in St. Louis with the rest of the FIRST teams, the last week of April.

This is the building block for the kids in Allendale to get excited about STEM fields. In this program, their challenge is similar to that of FLL, but more simple. They have to do some research on their new topic every year, and make a working model to describe some research that they found and learned about. Then, at the tournaments, they set up a little expo for all of the JR. FLL teams to show off what they have learned and researched. Then, their little season is over.