Overview of Feature Story

Reflection:

A couple weeks ago, my video class started a feature story project. We had to interview two people (a primary and a secondary) and we had to have a focus point for th story. For my story, I interviewed Ethan Behrends and Mr. Worcester about a club at my school called FIRST Robotics. Shooting the video footage was really annoying because I had to interview Ethan 3 times and the coach 2 times because we had camera issues. But, editing the video was my favorite part because it was really cool to overlap different videos and really put my imagination to the test. Then, after we finished our video, we had to do a writing portion of the story. This part was really easy because I took the video as a base of the story. But, I was gone for a few days when we worked on it, so I had a time issue there. Overall, I really liked this project because we had so much freedom of how we could shoot the video, where we could shoot it, and what our topic was.

Video:

Writing portion:

FIRST Robotics… 7 months, 49 students, 6 coaches, and all hard work. But, ONW sophomore, Ethan Behrends, knows that these 7 months means friends, family, and graphic design. He says, “Well I’ve also been interested in like computers and stuff, you know, since I was really little. Robotics and robots is just like really cool and all.” This year will be his second year on team 1710.

Each student on team 1710 has a very important job that if they don’t do, the team will suffer. I asked Ethan what he had to do on the graphic design team, he said, “…I have to help design t-shirts, posters, buttons, making sure we are the reason the team looks like what it does today.” Without Ethan on the graphic sub-team, the whole team could look completely different.

Mr. Worcester has been the main FIRST robotics coaches for 11 years. I asked him about his favorite part of coaching and he said, “I love to see how excited students get about it and seeing the joy that the get out of FIRST robotics.” When I interviewed Mr. Worcester, he said over an over again that these students were his kids and he treats them and loves them like his kids. He also said, “It’s such a great program and they’re so passionate about what they’re doing for FIRST and I really think we have some great chances this year.”

This season, the team will be going to 2 regional competitions, Minnesota and Nashville. “ Our overall goal, which is like every year, is the World Champions Chairman’s Award. We’ve gotten very close in several years but we are hoping to do it again at the World Championships which is where 600 of the world’s best teams compete for this one award.”

Finally, Mr. Worcester said his overall view on FIRST robotics, “It’s such a great opportunity for students to learn about STEM education and in a ay that they can get so excited about it. They have such a passion for FIRST robotics and for myself, I definitely have the passion, too. It’s the hardest fun I’ve ever had, I think.”