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The new school year brought even more community involvement. The team used the Vex mini-robots as a means to engage both elementary school and middle school students at various fairs, and also interacted weekly with a group of at Y-US, a program for troubled youth. We spread the word that science is fun. At Bash at the Beach, we won our 7th spirit award, along with Coolest Trick.
The Vex subgroup also had a strong showing as Runner-Up in the FIRST Vex Challenge Massachusetts Championship Tournament, and due to their community involvement, they won the Connect Award at the FIRST Vex Challenge Connecticut Championship Tournament
Team Paragon once again had use of a wonderful build space. Work happened at a feverish pace as different groups worked on play-field construction, prototypes of robot designs, electrical configurations, and programming specifications, while others made spirit materials, updated the website, and documented the process. It was an awesome sight!
Team Paragon performed well at the UTC Connecticut Regional ranking 13th place and also winning the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Entrepreneurship Award for our progressive business plan.
Team Paragon also performed very well at the Philadelphia Regional ranking 10th place and advancing to the semi-finals due to a change in the scoring mechanism. Paragon also won the Johnson & Johnson Sportsmanship Award due to our unique way of reaching out to other teams and interacted with various others teams in order to spread FIRST.
While team members went to Atlanta to volunteer for the National Championships, Team Paragon members back in Connecticut were already planning for the coming summer activities. As always, Team Paragon volunteered at the Vintage Radio Museum in the summer, and participated in the grand opening of the Radio Museum in September. Many members of the team worked on Dean's Homework to make a two-minute video on promoting FIRST and Robotics while others started to work with mentors on projects and training.
Team members also worked to fundraise in various ways over the summer. One very profitable fundraiser was the yearly can and bottle drive at the nearby Windsor Town Green. This can drive not only benefited Team Paragon but the Granby Lego League.
Team Paragon also participated in an off-season competition at WPI "BattleCry 8" and won the Spirit Award. It was a good experience for both returning team members as well as new members who got first-hand experience in the competitions.
The annual Year End Team Banquet was held to celebrate the team's accomplishments over the year. Members, mentors, and parents watched videos of matches and pictures from the year. To finish off the festivities Paragon honored and said goodbye to the 11 graduating seniors on the team.
With the start of a new school year came many new members to Team Paragon. Senior members of the team set up freshman orientations at each school. New and old team members also helped out at the Vintage Radio and Communication Museum. Many members attended the grand opening of the museum on October 27th. Some Paragon members even helped guide tours and showed off displays and various technologies.
Team Paragon participated in "Bash @ The Beach" at Old Lyme Middle School in Old Lyme, Connecticut. The robot made it to the finals and earned second place finalist. The team also won their 10th consecutive spirit award at this event.
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