Our History
Kardia Learning Center is a homeschool co-op group that was established over twenty-years ago. The goal of Kardia is to provide a cooperative learning community for students and parents. Kardia students meet weekly for a full day of instruction in history, art, literature, science, music, drama, Latin, Spanish, writing and composition, physical education, and scripture memory. Additionally, high school students are also offered course work in Christian Worldview, economics, logic, and comparative government. The focus on this classical style of education has proven to be successful in educating our students to excel both academically and socially.
Inspired to add a new component to the Kardia learning experience, the Kardia STEM Club was established in the summer of 2016. Wanting to provide an increased focus on 21st Century Learning skills, the STEM club was introduced as a volunteer, extracurricular opportunity for middle and high school students who currently or previously attended the Kardia Learning Center. Planning sessions among four mentors were initiated in May with the first student meeting held on September 13, 2016. The club has continued to meet weekly.
Because Kardia Robotics is a collection of Christian Homeschooled students, the approach has been slightly different than other competitive teams. While we desire to design, build, and control an effective robot, the main focus of our group is to offer unique learning experiences for our members. Therefore, significant time and effort has been spent designing lessons and activities that not only focus on our robot, but also on the engineering, programming, and marketing principles that are used for real-world success.
Our rookie year we were excited and blown away with FTC and the amazing teams competing. We attended three events and learned a lot from our first to our third. At our very first competition, the Hat Tricks Regional Qualifier we were surprisingly selected to play in the semi-finals and ended up on the winning alliance! Our second competition was the Southeastern Regional Qualifier. While we did not win any awards or make it to the finals we still had a great learning experience. We looked more like a seasoned team than a rookie team! We ended up in ninth place, a huge step for our team. Our third and final competition of the season was the South Central Regional Qualifier. We did an amazing job, ending up undefeated! In addition we placed third place and won the Judge's Rising Star Award!
The 2017-2018 season (second season) was crazy. We had a great time at the Oxford scrimmage, coming in fourth place! At Hat Tricks, our first competition our robot was not very successful, breaking down in 40% of our matches. Though the competition did not go as we had hoped we fortunately won the Think Award and was first runner up for Inspire! It was quite a day! Although we did not return with an award or a trophy from the Southeastern PA event, our team still felt that our second competition at Oxford was a success. Our robot performed beyond our expectations, with our Autonomous program performing successfully throughout the competition. We were selected to be on a semi-finalist alliance; a major advancement over our first competition. Lehigh Valley marked our greatest success to date. We finished the qualifying matches in 3rd place and served as an alliance captain. Though we did not advance to the finals, we were awarded once again with the THINK award, placed 2nd for the INSPIRE and CONTROL awards, and 3rd for the CONNECT award. We had a great time at the State Championship, and although we did not advance to Super-Regionals were glad for the learning opportunities it presented.
Our third year of FTC was another fantastic year for Kardia Robotics. Beginning our season yet again at the Oxford Open scrimmage, our robot had a few minor issues but managed to go undefeated, ending the practice run in first place! Entering the regular season we the Hat Tricks competition proved to be a roller coaster. After a rough start and a poor performance in the first two matches, the afternoon proved to be much more successful. Three consecutive match wins, a Design Award, and a third place finish for the Inspire Award ended our initial 2018-2019 competition on a high note, and qualified us for the State Championship! Our second competition was held in York. After another bumpy start our robot’s pre-programmed functions worked flawlessly and we ended the day on a semi-final alliance and won the THINK award, placed 2nd for the INSPIRE and MOTIVATE awards, and finished in 3rd place for the INNOVATE award! Our final qualifying event took place at Emmaus High School later in February. While our robot and programs worked flawlessly we were faced with steep competition on the field. However we were selected to join a semi-final alliance after regulation matches, and ended the day on the winning alliance! Through the hard challenges of the day, our team showed its resilience and continued to have a great time. Our last competition of the season was the Pennsylvania STATE Championship. We were selected to be a member of a semi-final alliance, but did not advance to the championship match. Although we did not qualify for the World Championship, our team had a great time and connected with other FTC organizations.
Our first competition of the 2019-2020 season was the Lancaster Scrimmage. At this scrimmage, we showcased our newly built Sky Stone robot for the first time. We were undefeated the entire day, and because of this, our team advanced to the finals and won first over-all. Our first qualifier was on December 14th of 2019. Coming off the high of winning the Lancaster Scrimmage, we were excited to see how our competition day would play out. We were picked during alliance selection and advanced to the semi final, and then the finals. At the award ceremony, we won the design award, in addition to an award for finalist alliance. We also finalized for the Think Award. All in all, it was a fairly successful day, and we were proud of the progress we made.
Our second qualifying competition was very successful. We placed second overall during the alliance selections. Thanks to a well orchestrated alliance strategy, we came out as winning alliance captain during finals. In addition to our field accomplishments, our team won the Inspire Award! Our third qualifier at Lehigh Valley was one of our best competitions so far. For the second time this season, we finished as competition finalists. Our team was ranked #1 overall and was undefeated through qualification matches. Finally, at the 2020 state competition, our team advanced to Division Finalist and ended our season an a high note!
The Ultimate Goal Season was a crazy year. COVID forced the team to face some new and unique challenges but fortunately, we were able to meet in person for most of our weekly meetings. At points throughout the season, we had to postpone several of our planned activities and meetings to ensure the safety of our members. Additionally, the impact of COVID has extended beyond our group and affected our outreach partners. We had planned to hold several FTC outreach events at local public middle and high schools and community libraries. Similar events have yielded increased interest among the participants and we had hoped last year’s presentations would also be successful. In place of us physically attending outreach events, the team developed an outreach video that we were able to use as a virtual outreach product. We also continued the use of social media, most specifically Instagram and our website, to connect with the FTC community and update our progress. Participating in two of the qualifier meets our team was slightly disappointed with the robots performance. Several breakdowns resulted in lower than expected scores, however, these experiences challenged us to improve and adjust. Entering the we were League Tournament extremely excited to show what our robot can do when operating to it fullest. Despite not advancing, mechanically our team advanced leaps and bounds through the development of our new CIM Drive drive-train and our most complex robot to date.
Entering into the Freight Frenzy season the team is excited and inspired to get back to normal. While we continued in-person meetings while possible last season, the new season’s meetings have had a unique dynamic. This season serves as a bridge between the last of our founding members and the younger Kardia Robotics generation. Faced with the future of losing our longtime members in both the programming and marketing teams, which have been for years a source of stability of success, the team has focused on planning ahead. To this effect, our senior members have begun to impart their knowledge and extensive practical wisdom to the junior members of the team. Teaching the basics of programming and marketing, as well as the more minute strategy advice and season process, the senior members have shown their dedication to the continued success of the team. In conjunction with our coaches, we have reached out to our Kardia family to ensure adequate membership for next season. Yet, amidst this culture of learning, the junior members of the design team have already shown great initiative. CADing the entire robot prior to construction, the team carefully planned out the design of the robot. Focusing on creating an “easy-to-repair” robot, the team has designed a module-based system.
Yet, our season has not been met without setbacks and failures. COVID has dramatically slowed our productivity as several key design members and their families have caught the sickness. Even though it has been tough, due to sickness, we have been working hard on the goals of passing the torch and raising the bar. We have successfully accomplished these goals for this season.
Our seventh season was a unique one since it was the first season without any original team members from our first season. As a result, half of our team consists of brand-new members. This year has brought struggles along with learning experiences.
This year's game was called Power Play, where the objective was to stack cones onto cones with varying heights. At our first competition, we qualified for the playoffs and received third place for the INSPIRE AWARD, which is the highest award given. Our second competition brought many hardships with the robot malfunctioning. From there, the design team analyzed the problem and fixed it in time for our last match, carrying our alliance to victory! Even though we didn't qualify for the playoffs or awards, our team learned the importance of perseverance and how the process is more important than the outcome. At that competition, our marketers also volunteered as march queuers as a way to "give back to FIRST." Our team was pumped for the third competition, but unexpected and inevitable problems occurred on the game field when one of the wires snapped and disabled the whole robot. In the future we will work to improve our wiring to prevent this mistake from happening again, thanks to another team for helping us figure this out.
Besides being on the playing field, our marketing team connected and reconnected with three sponsors. We hope to continue to be in touch with them!
Although our team experienced many ups and down, we learned from our mistakes and are looking forward to a great season next year.
Inspired to add a new component to the Kardia learning experience, the Kardia STEM Club was established in the summer of 2016. Wanting to provide an increased focus on 21st Century Learning skills, the STEM club was introduced as a volunteer, extracurricular opportunity for middle and high school students who currently or previously attended the Kardia Learning Center. Planning sessions among four mentors were initiated in May with the first student meeting held on September 13, 2016. The club has continued to meet weekly.
Because Kardia Robotics is a collection of Christian Homeschooled students, the approach has been slightly different than other competitive teams. While we desire to design, build, and control an effective robot, the main focus of our group is to offer unique learning experiences for our members. Therefore, significant time and effort has been spent designing lessons and activities that not only focus on our robot, but also on the engineering, programming, and marketing principles that are used for real-world success.
Our rookie year we were excited and blown away with FTC and the amazing teams competing. We attended three events and learned a lot from our first to our third. At our very first competition, the Hat Tricks Regional Qualifier we were surprisingly selected to play in the semi-finals and ended up on the winning alliance! Our second competition was the Southeastern Regional Qualifier. While we did not win any awards or make it to the finals we still had a great learning experience. We looked more like a seasoned team than a rookie team! We ended up in ninth place, a huge step for our team. Our third and final competition of the season was the South Central Regional Qualifier. We did an amazing job, ending up undefeated! In addition we placed third place and won the Judge's Rising Star Award!
The 2017-2018 season (second season) was crazy. We had a great time at the Oxford scrimmage, coming in fourth place! At Hat Tricks, our first competition our robot was not very successful, breaking down in 40% of our matches. Though the competition did not go as we had hoped we fortunately won the Think Award and was first runner up for Inspire! It was quite a day! Although we did not return with an award or a trophy from the Southeastern PA event, our team still felt that our second competition at Oxford was a success. Our robot performed beyond our expectations, with our Autonomous program performing successfully throughout the competition. We were selected to be on a semi-finalist alliance; a major advancement over our first competition. Lehigh Valley marked our greatest success to date. We finished the qualifying matches in 3rd place and served as an alliance captain. Though we did not advance to the finals, we were awarded once again with the THINK award, placed 2nd for the INSPIRE and CONTROL awards, and 3rd for the CONNECT award. We had a great time at the State Championship, and although we did not advance to Super-Regionals were glad for the learning opportunities it presented.
Our third year of FTC was another fantastic year for Kardia Robotics. Beginning our season yet again at the Oxford Open scrimmage, our robot had a few minor issues but managed to go undefeated, ending the practice run in first place! Entering the regular season we the Hat Tricks competition proved to be a roller coaster. After a rough start and a poor performance in the first two matches, the afternoon proved to be much more successful. Three consecutive match wins, a Design Award, and a third place finish for the Inspire Award ended our initial 2018-2019 competition on a high note, and qualified us for the State Championship! Our second competition was held in York. After another bumpy start our robot’s pre-programmed functions worked flawlessly and we ended the day on a semi-final alliance and won the THINK award, placed 2nd for the INSPIRE and MOTIVATE awards, and finished in 3rd place for the INNOVATE award! Our final qualifying event took place at Emmaus High School later in February. While our robot and programs worked flawlessly we were faced with steep competition on the field. However we were selected to join a semi-final alliance after regulation matches, and ended the day on the winning alliance! Through the hard challenges of the day, our team showed its resilience and continued to have a great time. Our last competition of the season was the Pennsylvania STATE Championship. We were selected to be a member of a semi-final alliance, but did not advance to the championship match. Although we did not qualify for the World Championship, our team had a great time and connected with other FTC organizations.
Our first competition of the 2019-2020 season was the Lancaster Scrimmage. At this scrimmage, we showcased our newly built Sky Stone robot for the first time. We were undefeated the entire day, and because of this, our team advanced to the finals and won first over-all. Our first qualifier was on December 14th of 2019. Coming off the high of winning the Lancaster Scrimmage, we were excited to see how our competition day would play out. We were picked during alliance selection and advanced to the semi final, and then the finals. At the award ceremony, we won the design award, in addition to an award for finalist alliance. We also finalized for the Think Award. All in all, it was a fairly successful day, and we were proud of the progress we made.
Our second qualifying competition was very successful. We placed second overall during the alliance selections. Thanks to a well orchestrated alliance strategy, we came out as winning alliance captain during finals. In addition to our field accomplishments, our team won the Inspire Award! Our third qualifier at Lehigh Valley was one of our best competitions so far. For the second time this season, we finished as competition finalists. Our team was ranked #1 overall and was undefeated through qualification matches. Finally, at the 2020 state competition, our team advanced to Division Finalist and ended our season an a high note!
The Ultimate Goal Season was a crazy year. COVID forced the team to face some new and unique challenges but fortunately, we were able to meet in person for most of our weekly meetings. At points throughout the season, we had to postpone several of our planned activities and meetings to ensure the safety of our members. Additionally, the impact of COVID has extended beyond our group and affected our outreach partners. We had planned to hold several FTC outreach events at local public middle and high schools and community libraries. Similar events have yielded increased interest among the participants and we had hoped last year’s presentations would also be successful. In place of us physically attending outreach events, the team developed an outreach video that we were able to use as a virtual outreach product. We also continued the use of social media, most specifically Instagram and our website, to connect with the FTC community and update our progress. Participating in two of the qualifier meets our team was slightly disappointed with the robots performance. Several breakdowns resulted in lower than expected scores, however, these experiences challenged us to improve and adjust. Entering the we were League Tournament extremely excited to show what our robot can do when operating to it fullest. Despite not advancing, mechanically our team advanced leaps and bounds through the development of our new CIM Drive drive-train and our most complex robot to date.
Entering into the Freight Frenzy season the team is excited and inspired to get back to normal. While we continued in-person meetings while possible last season, the new season’s meetings have had a unique dynamic. This season serves as a bridge between the last of our founding members and the younger Kardia Robotics generation. Faced with the future of losing our longtime members in both the programming and marketing teams, which have been for years a source of stability of success, the team has focused on planning ahead. To this effect, our senior members have begun to impart their knowledge and extensive practical wisdom to the junior members of the team. Teaching the basics of programming and marketing, as well as the more minute strategy advice and season process, the senior members have shown their dedication to the continued success of the team. In conjunction with our coaches, we have reached out to our Kardia family to ensure adequate membership for next season. Yet, amidst this culture of learning, the junior members of the design team have already shown great initiative. CADing the entire robot prior to construction, the team carefully planned out the design of the robot. Focusing on creating an “easy-to-repair” robot, the team has designed a module-based system.
Yet, our season has not been met without setbacks and failures. COVID has dramatically slowed our productivity as several key design members and their families have caught the sickness. Even though it has been tough, due to sickness, we have been working hard on the goals of passing the torch and raising the bar. We have successfully accomplished these goals for this season.
Our seventh season was a unique one since it was the first season without any original team members from our first season. As a result, half of our team consists of brand-new members. This year has brought struggles along with learning experiences.
This year's game was called Power Play, where the objective was to stack cones onto cones with varying heights. At our first competition, we qualified for the playoffs and received third place for the INSPIRE AWARD, which is the highest award given. Our second competition brought many hardships with the robot malfunctioning. From there, the design team analyzed the problem and fixed it in time for our last match, carrying our alliance to victory! Even though we didn't qualify for the playoffs or awards, our team learned the importance of perseverance and how the process is more important than the outcome. At that competition, our marketers also volunteered as march queuers as a way to "give back to FIRST." Our team was pumped for the third competition, but unexpected and inevitable problems occurred on the game field when one of the wires snapped and disabled the whole robot. In the future we will work to improve our wiring to prevent this mistake from happening again, thanks to another team for helping us figure this out.
Besides being on the playing field, our marketing team connected and reconnected with three sponsors. We hope to continue to be in touch with them!
Although our team experienced many ups and down, we learned from our mistakes and are looking forward to a great season next year.
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