National Award-Winning Girls' FIRST Tech Challenge Club
BSG Robotics - Challengers
Our club takes part in FIRST ® TECH CHALLENGE, the world’s largest STEM competition for students. Currently we compete in regional competitions (that we host in partnership with Bournemouth University) and the FIRST ® TECH CHALLENGE UK National Competition held each year. We have nearly 60 girls competing in the competition this year from BSG.
In June 2024 we won the UK National Championship INSPIRE Award making our Team ULTRAVIOLET the overall National Champions for the 23/24 Season, we also came 2nd in the CENTRESTAGE Robot Game.
In our first year we won the UK National Championship THINK Award for engineering and came UK National Runners Up in the DESIGN and CONNECT Award categories (for robot design and community outreach).
In just three years we’ve won 7 Regional Awards, 8 National Awards and most recently the UK’s first ever International Award at FIRST Global.
But our club is #morethanrobots and we aim to develop a wide range of skills in our students that will enhance their skill set and educational journey with us. We want to inspire as many as possible to consider STEM careers with a particular focus on mechanical, electrical or software engineering. A real collaboration between our D&T and Computing Departments, BSG Robotics also engages with industry mentors to further enhance the skills students develop and giving them further inspiration for working in related fields.
Every artifact we uncover holds a story. Each tool, each innovation, each work of art connects us to the people and ideas that came before us. Using STEM skills and teamwork, today we can dig deeper into discoveries than ever before.
Welcome to FIRST® AGE™ presented by Qualcomm, our 2025-2026 robotics season inspired by archaeology. What will you uncover? Join us for an experience for the ages.
This season, teams have to design a robot to have both autonomous and driver-controlled mechanisms which can navigate the game field, collect ball ‘artefacts’ and launch them across the game field. We can’t wait to see what our teams come up with!
Introducing our FTC Teams this Season
It’s now our third season and this year our club has expanded to four all-girl teams. Our National Champion FTC Team – ULTRAVIOLET, Regional Award Winners – ORANGE BYTES.
This year we introduce a new third FTC Team – SCARLET SPARX. We’ll show all their progress on this webpage, our instagram account and our LinkedIn Page. We hope you’ll follow us this season. We recruit students to our teams in early September.
This year we will have a separate weekly lunchtime session for each team with a FIRST UK Coach, though other teams can come and complete supervised work on their teams & robots on other lunchtimes too.
Our club will link up online with other regional clubs to support each other and network with other young people.
About FIRST TECH CHALLENGE
It’s way more than building robots. FIRST® TECH CHALLENGE teams (up to 15 team members, Year 7-13) 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.
The robot kit is reusable from year to year and can be coded using a variety of levels of Java-based programming. Teams design and build robots, raise funds, design and market their team brand, and do community outreach to earn specific awards. Participants are eligible to apply for $80M+ in college scholarships in the USA.
Each season concludes with regional championship events and an exciting FIRST® Championship.
The really cool thing about FIRST® Tech Challenge is…all skill levels are welcomed and needed, technical or non-technical. Student and adult team members are encouraged to bring any skills they already have, like coding, electronics, metalworking, graphic design, web creation, public speaking, videography, and more. Adult coaches guide students as they gain skills and confidence in a supportive, inclusive environment.
BSG Robotics. News and Events
Want to help inspire the next generation of stem leaders?
Contact us and see how we can help each other: bsgrobotics@bsg.bournemouth.sch.uk