Past Events
2023 Clarkston Holiday Lights Parade
For years, Team RUSH has hosted the Clarkston Holiday Lights Parade in downtown Clarkston for our town residents. With 32 entries in the parade, this was the largest parade in many years! With the theme of "Snowglobe Spectacular", entries ranged from snowglobe tents, dance teams, and more! Congrats to the winners of all the awards, listed above!
December 9th, 2023
2023 Bell AVR Championship
Team RUSH travelled down to Hurst Texas to compete in the Bell AVR Championship event for the second year in a row! With much resilience, the team overcame some of their technical issues, winning second place in addition to the Best Overall Design award for the second time. We are so thankful for all of our team's amazing AVR sponsors, as well as the event volunteers and everyone involved.
December 1-2nd, 2023
RUSH Retreat
Some mark the beginning of their season at kickoff, or in January, we on Team RUSH instead begin each year with our RUSH Retreat! This is a 24-hour event (yes the students sleep over) filled with training, games, and fun! This year's theme was based on "The Greatest Showman", with carnival decorations, we thank the parents and other volunteers for making this event special for the team!
November 17-18th, 2023
Bell AVR Grandville 11/11 Qualifier Win!
Team RUSH started competing in Bell AVR in 2022, where they won the Championship event. The weekend of 11/11, they did it again and won a qualifying event at Grandville Robotics Center! After 4 tough matches, an event high score, and the 2nd highest presentation score, they walked away with the win. This now qualifies the team for the Championship event in early December and we're searching for prospective sponsors to help the students attend
November 11th, 2023
2023 FLL Expo
Team RUSH mentors FLL Explore and Challenge teams throughout the fall, and this event is the Explore teams Exposition! 10 Clarkston-RUSH mentored teams in addition to 7 out-of-district teams met for the morning to show off their lego creations and projects to a panel of judges, practice team-building, and earn awards. Thank you so much to the volunteers and teams for making such a great day for us all!
November 4th, 2023
2023 West Michigan Robotics Invitational
For the final offseason event for Team RUSH, the team performed after lots of drivers practice to excel. After placing 3rd with an undefeated qualification record, they were first pick of alliance 2 (6081, 27, 7211, 6114). The team traversed the upper-bracket, playing 3 tough finals matches to win the whole event! Thanks to all the host teams and organizers for such an amazing event.
October 21st, 2023
2023 Kettering Kickoff
Team RUSH attended Day 1 of Kettering Kickoff with ambition and ferocious intensity. On this day, the team cycled through new drivers and placed 6th after qualifications. As the first pick of alliance 4 (5907, 27, 68), they made it extremely far, ending in the lower bracket finals. They had a great time, cheering loud, driving hard, and representing their team well!
September 23rd, 2023
Goonettes Invitational
The Team was invited to attend the all-girls event known as Goonettes in September. Here, drive teams made of girls had the chance to compete in the 2023 game, learning how to drive for the previous weeks, they came in excited to drive and try new things! We placed 19th in quals to be 1st pick of alliance 7 (6081, 27, 1023, 6914). Our team's coach Mrs. Hughes also won mentor of the year award!
September 10th, 2023
2023 RUSH Regatta
Each year, Team RUSH hosts the community event known as the RUSH Regatta. While a cardboard and duct tape boat race to the public, it's also our teams main fundraiser, where students are challenged to raise the most funds, present their entrepreneurial efforts and engineering design of their boats to the judges, then head off at the races! Our team was able to raise over $50,000 this year thanks to all of our sponsors!
July 8th, 2023
Clarkston 4th of July Parade
To help celebrate this momentous holiday, Team RUSH represented the Clarkston robotics program in the 4th of July parade across downtown Clarkston. With a walking entry, we were seen by hundreds of Clarkston residents who came to support the towns various organizations walking in the parade. Happy 4th of July to all!
July 4th, 2023
Summer Camps 2023
For 2 weeks of their summer, Team RUSH high school students dedicated their time and energy to volunteering to lead 5 various summer camps. Those camps being FLL Explore, FLL Challenge, TinkerCAD Beginner and Advanced, and RUSHing Girls into 3d Printing and Lasercputting. This is always a highlight of the students summers as they get to create custom curriculum and implement it themselves in these camps!
June 19th-23rd, & 26th-29th, 2023
MakerGirl Mania 2023
Team RUSH once again participate in MakerGirl Mania, an event where hundreds of young girls come out to explore STEAM and have fun with various activities! Students from the team hosted multiple stations such as FLL robots, FLL Explore robots, FTC driving experience, and more! We are so thankful we're continuously able to impact our community and inspire STEAM in the younger generation, especially the girls!
April 29th, 2023
2023 World Championship | Week 8
For the World Championship in Houston Texas, the team travelled the drive by bus, arriving in Houston to be greeted by the Archimedes division. Here, the team played with some of the best teams in the world, finishing qualifications rank 37, and were picked by the #1 alliance on our field and the world! Despite the alliances early elimination due to robot malfunctions, this was the most memorable experience for some of the team members yet!
2023 Michigan State Championship | Week 6
After an amazing event on the west side of the state, Team RUSH attended the Michigan State Championship with high hopes after their great success last year. In the Ford division, Team RUSH finished quals ranked 9, to be the captain of alliance #6. Through many tough matches, the team was unfortunatly eliminated in the playoffs, but still had lots of fun! They also won the Innovation in Controls award here!
2023 West Michigan District Event | Week 4
For the team's third tournament of this season, Team RUSH went to the west side of the state for an appearance at the West Michigan District Event! This was the first time since 2011 that Team RUSH attended this event when in 2011 Team RUSH won with 3357 COMETS! For this season though, the team ended qualifications 4th, to be the first pick of alliance one with 3357 once again! The team won the event despite several tough matches, and won the Excellence in Engineering Award!
2023 Central Illinois Regional | Week 3
Team RUSH visited the state of Illinois for the Central Illinois Regional in Peoria. At this out-of-state event, the team learned many new things, drove extremely hard, and performed amazingly! After qualifications, the team ended rank 2, picking two other teams to join them in the playoffs. After many hard-fought matches, Team RUSH finished as event finalists and won the Sustainability Award again!
2023 Milford District Event | Week 1
This first week of the CHARGED UP! competition season, Team RUSH attended the Milford District Event. Here, they battled their way through 12 qualification matches, ending at rank 11, to be the first pick of 4362 on alliance #2. The team drove hard and placed 3rd overall at the event and also won the Sustainability Award. Overall, the team had so much fun, learned lots of valuable lessons, and met new people!
2023 Team RUSH Showcase Event
The team hosts a showcase event each year at the end of the build season to highlight our progress in the season so far. From our Inspiration Presentation, Programming and Media Highlights, and Mechanical Review, our students truly showcase their progress and passion in one evening!
2023 FRC Kickoff for Team RUSH
Team RUSH was totally CHARGED UP today as we kicked off the 2023 FRC season! Between many brainstorming sessions for our team, gracious volunteers building field components, more amazing volunteers feeding us snacks and meals, and alumni saying hello, this was a great time for all involved! We hope all the teams are energized and excited!
2022 RUSH Holiday Party
Team RUSH celebrated the upcoming holiday break with a night full of good food, people, and a fun gift exchange game. Many items such as stuffed animals, candy, and even a jar of pickles made an apperance in our gift exchange game. Thanks to all the parent support, the food was amazing, and we hope everyone had a great time at the party and over their holiday break!
2022 Clarkston Holiday Lights Parade
Team RUSH organizes the Clarkston Holiday Lights Parade each December to help gather the community and remind them of the importance of STEM. This year, The Cub Scouts won the best use of STEM award, learn more on this page!
Bell AVR Championship - December 3rd, 2022
Team 27A, Team RUSH's Bell AVR drone team placed 1st at the championship event in Arlington Texas. After 4 tough matches and a presentation, they won the event by 1 point! Earning them a private helicopter ride in Fort Worth TX. This was the team's first experience with "off -the-ground robotics", and while it was rocky at times, they performed amazingly and surpassed their goals!
FLL Explore Expo - November 12th, 2022
The FLL Explore Expo was an amazing event, with 11 RUSH sponsored/lead FIRST Lego League Explore (grades K-3) teams and 4 teams from Holy Family School from Grand Blanc, MI. These young students did a fantastic job presenting their projects to the Reviewers (Judges)
MAC 2022 - October 12th, 2022
Yet again, Team RUSH attended the Michigan Advocacy Conference in Lansing. Student representatives learned about why advocacy is important, how we can effectively advocate for STEM education funding, and more! Thanks to team 1718 for putting on this wonderful event!
RUSH Retreat 2022 - October 7-8th, 2022
Team RUSH began their season in full spirits with the RUSH Retreat, a 2 day event full of team building, leadership and communications trainings, and much more! RUSH students and mentors alike learned, practiced, and played with the help of mentors and a guest speaker, Mr. Peterson from Challenge Island.
Junior Robotics Re-Booted! - September 20&22, 2022
Team RUSH once again kicked off the 2022/2023 FLL Explore and Challenge seasons this week, brining in over 75 kids total, with high spirits, and very very excited kids! Between FLL Explore for 2nd and 3rd graders, and FLL Challenge for 4th and 5th graders, there was no lack of energy, enthusiasm, and excitement to once again, be able to play with robots!
Firefly Drone Shows Demo - September 21, 2022
Team RUSH has many amazing sponsors, one of them being Firefly Drones, a company that puts on events of hundreds of synchronized drones in the air to display images. Firefly invited the team out to their practice field to show us what they do, and how they involve robotics in every aspect of their company.
Watch the full drone demo flight here!
Kettering Kickoff - September 18, 2022
Team RUSH finished their offseason with Kettering Kickoff. With plenty of new students and high hopes, the team worked to place alliance 4 captains. Being first pick of alliance #1 meant they worked with teams 2337 and 5084 to place event quarterfinalists.
Indiana Robotics Invitational - July 15-17, 2022
Team RUSH students attended IRI with a partially new team, new drivers, and big goals. They drove strong going 9-5, being rank 7 and alliance captain 6. Working with teams 2075, 4535, and 7457, they placed event semi-finalists and had a lot of fun!
RUSH Regatta - July 9th, 2022
Team RUSH students brought their cardboard boats to Deer Lake to race against each other with the hopes of earning the coveted RUSH Regatta Cup Championship! This is our biggest fundraiser of the year, so if YOU would like to sponsor one of their boats, contact us!
RUSH Summer Camps - June 20-23 & 27-30
Team RUSH students spent weeks developing curriculum in order to run more than 5 different summer camps for kids 1st-5th grade! The different camps involved a FLL, Jr Vex, 3d modeling beginner and advanced, and girls engineering. These self developed camps instilled our RUSH students with leadership qualities, as well as helping involved kids in our community in stem.
2022 Houston World Championships - April 20-23
This week, Team RUSH worked to compete their hardest at the competition! They entered in with creativity, inspiration, and tenacity in mind! They finished 9-5-0 on newton field, coming to an unfortunate end in the semifinals at rank 12. They worked with team 3339 as their first pick, then selecting teams 1787, and 114.
2022 Michigan State Championships - April 13-16
This week, Team RUSH worked hard to dominate the competition! They entered in with energy and tenacity, with the goals to do their best and win! Finishing 11-1 in qualifications, 6-0 in divisional playoffs, and 4-2 interdivisional playoffs to win the championship with teams 2337 and 5090! The team won the quality award in the Consumers Energy Division.
2022 Troy District Event - March 31-April 2
This week, Team RUSH strived to compete at week 5 Troy Athens District Competition! The team faced challenges and overcame them. Finishing qualifications 10:1:1, then becoming alliance #1 captain to pick team 67 HOT! Ending playoffs 5:1 to win! They also won the Excellence in Engineering Award.
2022 Greater Pittsburgh Regional - March 16-19
This week, Team RUSH entered the competition with unwavering confidence and support from their community. They came, they saw, they conquered. Despite multiple challenges and setbacks, this team absolutely rocked the competition placing 2nd in qualifications with a record of 10:1, then going on to be first pick of the #1 alliance, finishing elimination matches with a record of 5:0 winning the event! They also again won the Autonomous Award sponsored by Ford.
2022 Kettering University District Event - March 3-5
Team RUSH absolutely dominated the competition week 1 at Kettering University! The team faced and overcame challenges, stared adversity in the face, and pushed through. Finishing qualification matches 10:1:1 ranked #1, then going on to be undefeated in eliminations to win the event as alliance 1 captain! They also won the Autonomous Award sponsored by Ford.
2022 FIRST Game Reveal - January 8-9, 2022
This year Team RUSH came together to watch the 2022 FIRST game reveal of Rapid React! After learning about the new game, the team split up and became experts in the rules of the game and how it is played. The team then took some time to research past robots and games in order to understand more about to approach this year's game. The weekend was action-packed with a lot of team builders and brainstorming sessions. Team RUSH is back and ready to build another robot!
2021 Holiday Lights Parade - December 11, 2021
This past winter, Team RUSH once again teamed up with our community to put on the annual Holiday Lights Parade! This was our first parade in two years so we couldn't have been more excited to bring everyone together under the lights.
The theme was Toyland in C-Town and our parade entries did not disappoint! We saw everything from spinning Rubik's Cubes to toy wagons and had a super fun time despite the cold and windy weather.
2021 FLL Explorer expo - November 6, 2021
The FLL Junior Show Me event was a huge success, students had the opportunity to showcase their creations to judges and patents. Students also had the chance to see what the FLL and FTC challenges were this year. Every student got to go home with a medal and an award along with a smile on their face.
2021 Clarkston Robotics Programs: 9/21-11/21
Due to COVID-19, Team RUSH students have been restricted from holding in-person RUSH FLL Junior, FLL, & FTC fall camps for the past two years. Fortunately for us, we were able to start the programs up once again this fall and even include a new level of LEGO robotics: FLL discover! During these programs, RUSH students mentor small groups of young learners, teaching them all about LEGO robots, FIRST core values, and the engineering process.
FTC OCCRA Competition - 11/1/2021
This Fall, Team RUSH 27 helped run the OCCRA FTC Qualifier. We worked hard to allow brilliant kids to demonstrate the hard work they put into their FTC season. During this event, Team RUSH 27 students assisted in running matches, which included resetting the arena and being referees.
2021 RUSH Retreat - 10/23/21
Team RUSH students came together and learned how to work better as a team by participating in a variety of trainings and teambuilding activities this fall! We were incredibly relieved to be able to host this event once again.
2021 Kettering Offseason Invitational - September 18, 2021
Competitions are back! Team RUSH’s first competition since February 2020 happened on September 18, 2021 at the Kettering Invitational Kickoff event, a competition held and hosted at Kettering University, this year the game was Infinite Recharge. The game was first released in the 2020 season, and with what seemed like an infinitely long break due to COVID Team RUSH was able to recharge and come back as good as ever. RUSH took second place along with CowTown Robotics and Metal Muscle out of over forty teams. Team RUSH not only made this return to the stadium a success on the field, but also an enjoyable, action-packed, fun-filled weekend.
2021 RUSH Summer Camps - Week of 6/28/2021
This year, our RUSH Summer Camps for kids were the first step back to normalcy! Every camp was entirely student-led, allowing our amazing students to get a good amount of experience mentoring. As we got back into the groove, both counselors and students had the time of their lives, many of them sad that it had to end so soon. We look forward to seeing all of the campers again next summer.
RUSH organized and ran four different summer camps throughout the week of June 28 through July 1, 2021. The TinkerCad camp focused on learning how to operate a CAD program as well as how to 3D print designs. In the FLL and FLL Jr. programs students learned how to build and program their own robot using Legos. In the SPRK Robotics camp students got to program Team RUSH’s own Sphero robot balls to move around different obstacles.
Safety Training - Beginning 9/21/2020
As we prepare to start in-person meetings, we hosted our annual Shop Safety Training sessions online so all students on the team understand appropriate safety protocol in the machine shop.
Also, we held COVID-19 Safety Training sessions so everyone understands the additional safety expectations.
For both training sessions, students needed to take and pass an online quiz on the topics.
Career Development Training - Beginning 8/5/2020
Students joined Team RUSH’s Career Development Training! All who participated in these training sessions received resume building instructions, tips and tricks for interviews, mock interviews where participants can practice their craft, and an informational, professional panel. These online Zoom meetings were on August 5th, 12th, 19th, and the 26th from 7 to 8 PM.
Virtual "Clean Planet" Weekly Program - Beginning 7/22/2020
Introducing the brand new Clean Planet Program! RUSH led a free camp to teach about the environment, while still indoors. K-3rd graders loved this camp experience. We discussed problems in our environment and how we can help fix them. Our 4 weekly Zoom meetings were at 10 AM, starting July 22nd, and 13 students total attended.
July 22 - Global warming
July 29 - Fossil fuels & green energy
August 5 - Plastic & the ocean
August 8 - Deforestation
Virtual Summer Camps - Weeks of 7/13/2020 and 7/20/2020
To teach younger students about coding and 3D Modeling, we led Virtual RUSH Camps, which are our way of giving back to the community and to teach others about what we do as a team. We began camps involving CAD and block programming. All of these camps were held virtually. We want everyone to be able to make the most of social distancing by learning new skills. Across the two weeks, 7 students joined the Coding camp, and 12 students participated in the 3D Modeling camp.
Team RUSH at home challenges - July 1 through August 8, 2020
Due to COVID, Team RUSH created at home challenges for students and families of all ages and skill levels. There was a range of different challenges the community could choose from, including building a rocket out of LEGOs and building a Rube Goldberg machine with a group of people.
RUSH Camp - 6/15/2020 to 6/18/2020
Due to COVID-19, we were restricted from holding the in-person version of our annual RUSH Camp, a camp in the summer dedicated to the team’s members learning about the team itself, each other, and themselves. But, that did not stop us! Using Zoom, Team RUSH 27 met for six hours each day from Monday to Thursday from the comfort of our own homes. For example, one of our students led a fun team building challenge where groups got to recreate images using Google Sheets with pixel art! Returning and new students alike found delight in meeting as a team every day. The team essence of RUSH can never be lost!
Online National Advocacy Conference (NAC) - 6/13/2020 and 6/20/2020
Seven years ago, Team RUSH helped launch the annual National Advocacy Conference (NAC), where students lobbied for STEM reform in Washington, D.C. Over the years, more and more teams participated, so FIRST currently oversees the educational conference. Because of COVID-19, the event was online this year; some Team RUSH students participated! Through this two-day seminar, students learned about various topics: the different levels of advocacy, how to have successful meetings with political leaders, and how STEM reform relates to FIRST. Overall, the experience was very educational!
Our first competition of the 2020 season went extremely well. Team RUSH was able to partner with Team 2337 Enginerds, and Team 8386 Red Eye Robotics to win the Kettering University District Event. Team RUSH was also able to win the Excellence in Engineering award which is given out to the team which celebrates an elegant and advantageous machine feature. Overall it was a great tournament and we are excited to see where our season takes us.
Team RUSH Showcase - 2/21/2020
What is the showcase, you might ask? To answer simply, the showcase is a presentation hosted by Team RUSH students for parents, sponsors, seeking sponsors, alumni, and more. It’s a fun and beneficial event to show off what the team has been working on. For companies who are looking to sponsor Team RUSH, it’s a way to show why they should and how the sponsorship would help us. The showcase helps to train the students on communication skills as they are hosting the showcase. Sponsors are listed at the showcase, and nearly all other RUSH events. We are continually thankful for our sponsors past, present, and future.
Kickoff Weekend - 1/4/2020 to 1/5/2020
The Kickoff was an all weekend event that the students spent seeing, analyzing, understanding, and strategizing for the 2020 FRC game. This weekend was a great opportunity for the students to expand their knowledge on FIRST and their mission for this year. This time was also spent strategizing and discussing our game plan for the new game and what we want our robot to do.
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