About - FTC 8620 Wormgear Warriors

About First Tech Challenge

FIRST® was founded in 1989 to inspire young people’s interest and participation in science and technology. Based in Manchester, NH, FIRST® is a not-for-profit public charity that designs accessible, innovative programs that motivate young people to pursue education and career opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math, while building self-confidence, knowledge, and life skills.

FIRST Tech Challenge teams (up to 15 team members, grades 7-12) are challenged to design, build, program, and operate robots to compete in a head-to-head challenge in an alliance format.

Guided by adult coaches and mentors, students develop STEM skills and practice engineering principles, while realizing the value of hard work, innovation, and working as a team. Teams also raise funds, design and market their team brand, and do community outreach to earn specific awards.

About Us

The WormGear Warriors began eleven years ago. We are a nonprofit FTC team from Edwardsville, Illinois. Our coach founded Metro Area Robotics Society (or MARS) as a way to keep our team sustainable and continue spreading our message. Our mission is to strive for the advancement of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics (STEAM) through participation in FIRST robotics. We focus on empowering students to become tomorrow’s leaders by teaching leadership skills, giving them mechanical, electrical, programming, and presentation experiences while working as a team. We seek out other students to participate in this activity, leading more students to pursue STEM careers. Over our time as an FTC team we have received and placed for several awards such as the Inspire, Think, Connect, Control, Innovate, Design, Motivate, and Promote Awards. We have also been honored to partake in the World Championship two of our years as a team and the Illinois State Championship ten of those years.