Based in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, Team 1730 began in the fall of 2005 as a nameless organization. Lee’s Summit High School's physics teacher, Jim Nazworthy, hosted a meeting for a small group of students to come and see what a FIRST program had to offer. The results of this meeting sparked a team that would go on to build numerous award-winning robots and changed the lives of hundreds of students in our community.
The challenges of being a rookie team in the FIRST world made robotics seem nearly impossible. Inspired by the energy they saw within each other, the groups of students would meet for hours at a time trying develop an identity. One night, after many discussions and arguments, an onlooker walked by and remarked, “What’s the matter with you guys? You’re obsessed, you’re compulsive, it’s like you’re driven!” The name stuck: “Driven.” It was a quality they admired in each other, and something they wanted the team to be known for. The name is not merely just a title, it is a creed that all Team Driven members live by.
The most important component of Team Driven has always been the sense of family that its members develop. During the build season, students spend up to 40 hours a week at the build site. During this time students, parents, mentors, younger siblings, and even students from other FIRST teams come together to brainstorm, experiment, and learn from one another. The members of that first team established Team Driven’s official creed: “Driven to Succeed.” This legacy lives on in the current students of Team Driven, as well as all of the lives that they have touched.
The Junior Robotics League (JRL) has been a smashing success since it was founded by Team Driven in 2008. Each year, the Game Design Committee (GDC) designs a new challenge for elementary and middle school students. Participants form teams of 2 to 6 members and have six weeks to design and build a shoe box sized robot to complete the challenge.
Cow Town ThrowDown is our annual off-season robotics tournament, hosted at Lee's Summit High School. The event covers all FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science & Technology) programs. The event allows teams to practice with their robots before the season starts in a low-stakes environment.