The new Granite Ridge Robotics course gave 20 middle school students an opportunity to participate in the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) robotics competitions for the first time in Clovis Unified’s history. With the help from 100 members of the Clovis North High School robotics team as mentors, plus parents and professionals from the community, the students designed, prototyped, built, and competed with their robots. Using engineering notebooks to document their progress, and videos of how other robots were designed, the teams refined their designs to produce a more effective and reliable robot than the previous iteration- that was where the learning came in. Allowing students to “fail” in a safe environment with the opportunity to improve is the essence of learning. The robotics season culminated with two Granite Ridge teams competing in the Stable Stomp FTC Qualifier on December 16th against 14 other middle and high school teams, and managed to place in the top half of the field.