Johnston Robotics Association

We are the Atomic Narwhals: FIRST® Tech Challenge team #16736, and we are thrilled to be gearing up for the FIRST World Championship, a culminating international event for our youth robotics competition season alongside 255 other FTC teams from across the globe representing over 50 countries!

First Tech Challenge (FTC) is a worldwide robotics competition where students design, build, and program robots to participate in competitions. This season we embraced new opportunities to go out into our community to teach, learn, present to, and support underserved and underrepresented students. We have taught multiple camps to Girl Scouts and others in our community. We successfully advocated for robotics bills SF278 and HF514, two bills that unlock 14 million dollars in federal Perkins Grant Funding for school robotics teams in Iowa. We launched 2 new teams in the Philippines, and opened access to Des Moines Public Schools through a $2500 grant proposal to the board.

Our team was established in 2019 and comprises fourteen 9th-12th grade students with diverse backgrounds and interests from multiple school districts in West Des Moines, Johnston, Waukee, Grimes, Urbandale, and Southeast Polk.

These past six years our team has persevered through personal challenges, a global pandemic, countless late nights and early mornings to make 5 state appearances. This year with our Inspire Award and incredible robot performance, we qualified for the FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship in Houston, Texas, on April 16-19, 2025.

As a community team, we depend entirely on sponsorships and donations to cover the $33,080 cost of preparation, travel, and participation. Your support can help make this dream a reality for us. Every contribution brings us one step closer — thank you for considering a donation to our team!

We have access to a 501(c)(3), which allows you to make tax-deductible contributions to our team through the Johnston Robotics Association.

Please consider promoting STEM in the community, investing in the future, and sponsoring our team.

Thank you for your support!

Best Regards,

Team #16736, the Atomic Narwhals