On December 2nd, 2023 starting at 8:00 AM at WHS Cafetorium, Winnovation (FRC Team 1625) will be hosting their annual FlapJack Challenge and Pancake Breakfast. The FlapJack Challenge is a minibot competition built around a game designed to build rookies awareness of expectations in a real robotics competition, which FRC teams are introduced to early January of next year. Each team is given about 5 weeks to build a robot–often called a minibot due to its small size– based on a game designed by team seniors. This year’s game is called Mark-it-up!. In addition to their robot competition, Winnovation will be serving a pancake breakfast to anyone who buys breakfast tickets from 8:00 AM until noon, at which time they will begin serving pizza. Winnovation will also be hosting a basket raffle which will include a variety of 40+ differently themed baskets donated by  local businesses or put together by families. For people craving a sweet treat, there will be a bake sale with a variety of goods baked by members of the Winnovation family. Tickets for the pancake breakfast are $6.00 for adults and $4.00 for kids 12 and under.  Winnovation Team 1625 members are selling pancake tickets now or they will be available at the door!

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A Group of Winnovation Team 1625 members visited NIU STEM Fest to talk about FIRST and being a robotics student and it was a blast!! From 10 AM to 3 PM, the team talked with many eager students, teachers,  and community members while showing off PRODIUS, our drive train robot. On the side, team members got to explore the NIU campus and their many activities in their different areas other than Anderson Hall. Overall, everyone had a great time and we all took a little piece of knowledge back to our bot shop. 

Winnovation FRC Team 1625 will be participating in the Winnebago Area Chamber of Commerce’s Trunk or Treat event, taking place October 21st from 10:00 AM to noon on Benton St. in Winnebago IL. The team will be handing out candy to children and some of our team members will be participating in the costume contest. You will be able to recognize our team by our traditional orange and black tie-dye shirts or by a red Pontiac car decorated as an orange robot. For this event, we are accepting large pieces of cardboard as a donation to decorate our trunk. You can contact us through our team email (team1625@gmail.com).  We hope to see you there!!

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R2OC is an Off-season competition held at the Rock Valley College PE Center this year on July 22nd. There were 95-100 volunteers and 30 teams to help out with R2OC plus participate. R2OC was hosted by Teams Winnovation 1625, Flaming Monkeys 3352, Stateline Robotics 4655, and Rockford Robotics 2039. The competition went very well. All 30 teams got to participate.

    R2OC was PWNAGE 2451's last competition in FIRST Robotics. We are extremely grateful to have helped host for the popular Midwest team PWNAGE's last competition. Congratulations on an amazing final season!​​

On June 8th we will have our shop doors open for our Ice Cream Social. 

Each year we hold a Ice Cream Social to introduce potential new members to Winnovation and FIRST. While there we will be serving ice cream, bought from the Scoop in Winnebago, for potential members, as well as showing off the shop and our robot.

Potential members will have the opportunity to meet with other potential rookies, and current members from the previous seasons.

We will be open at the Bot Shop (110 N Pecatonica St Winnebago IL) at 5:30, all are welcome!

It's that time again for Winnovation Team 1625's Fun-O-Vation S.T.E.A.M. Summer Camp!!

Fun-O-Vation, as said before, is our robotic team's local summer camp for kindergarteners to 6th graders. At this week long summer camp, we are able to teach our campers different aspects of S.T.E.A.M. and inspire them to do great things in their future!! However, this year will be a bit different from last time. This year, 4th graders to 6th graders will have the opportunity to experience the FIRST LEGO League if they were to sign up. 

(There has been a known issue of names being auto-filled in the forms. If this case were to happen, please input the correct  information of your camper and yourself!!)

"How did it get late so soon. It's night before it's afternoon. December before it's June. My goodness, how the time has flewn. How did it get late so soon?" ~ Dr. Seuss

All of us could think back on this quote. It only feels like its been a week since Charged Up was announced to us in the cafeteria at the Winnebago High School. However, we are now 3 days away from leaving Winnebago, IL and Pecatonica, IL to Houston, TX to compete at the 2023 World Championship!! Come check us out on Blue Alliance on the Johnson Division!!!

Come check us out on News Channel 23 as we talk about Houston, our robot, and many more!!