TEAM 3641.COM
The Flying Toasters
A Unified Competitive High School Robotics Team
South Lyon, MI USA
To inspire, and intrique, unite and achieve greatness!
Building Bridges and
STEAM-ing Ahead into
a Better Future
FIRST Connections
Junior FIRST LEGO League
2016 marked the start of the first Jr. FLL program in South Lyon. Team 6600, the Mini-Toasters, was established with Toaster mentors to begin our rookie season. Next year, we will be hosting a Jr. FLL interest night for parents and students in order to start more teams in our community.
FIRST LEGO League
In the spring, the Toasters held a FLL interest meeting. There, 106 interested parents and elementary school students got to learn about FIRST and the opportunities of FLL. Through this meeting, we were able to start 7 FLL teams in our community, with more growth expected in the coming years. The Toasters have worked hard to ensure that each team had a high school mentor to assist them through our season, and one of our high schoolers even won the mentor award at one of our competitions.
FIRST Tech Challenge
2017 was the start of a new FTC team in South Lyon, The Robo Toasters Blue. Along with our fourth year team, The Robo Toasters Orange, Toaster FTC teams have won the Think award, Innovate award, third place inspire, and were winners at two competitions this season alone. The Flying Toasters make it a priority to inspire future toasters through student mentorship and inviting them to help with our STEAM classes. This year, the Toasters taught our middle school friends everything we know about STEAM classes and, with some assistance, we were able to run one themselves.
FIRST LEGO League - Crumble Rumble
In November, we hosted our second annual Flying Toasters’ Crumble Rumble FLL Tournament. It was an incredible success, running ahead of schedule and under budget. Twenty Four (24) teams competed, and over 120 volunteers helped make the tournament a success.
FIRST Robotics Challenge - Machine Shop
Gail Alpert, who is the head of FIRST in Michigan, regularly contacts the team asking us to bring our machine shop in order to support other teams. Team 3641 loves the opportunity to help other FRC teams in any way we can! For the past three years, the Toasters hosted the machine shop at 10 different competitions, which allowed them to further be a mentor to teams who needed help and to interact with potential friends.
We helped out the Shambotz, a team who was disheartened with their lack of success, and made sure we gave them the hope and inspiration they needed to continue being a FIRST robotics team. This year, the Toasters will be travelling to the Michigan State Championships and World’s Competition with our machine shop.
FIRST Robotics Challenge - Team Mentorship
The Toasters have made it our mission to spread STEAM education to communities both near and far. We also have made it a priority to make other teams aware of the importance of spreading STEAM education to our own communities. This is why the Toasters have mentored other teams in how to run a STEAM class and put one on by themselves. Team 3641 worked with Team 3707, The Brighton TechnoDogs, teaching them how to put on a class at the Brighton Library for over 50 elementary school students! The day was loads of fun, and the Flying Toasters are excited for the future of this relationship.
Toasters are always working to make new friendships with other FRC teams. Each year the Toasters hold a QFD meeting and invite teams to come, and the Hackbots have come the past two. The teams collaborate both on Chairman’s and Business and with the robot and game strategy.
This past year, the Electro Eagles11 reached out to our team for assistance on submitting for the Chairman’s Award for the first time. We offered our expertise by meeting with them and sharing our resources and materials with our newfound friends!
