To extend opportunities for our students 1) to focus on a developing interest, 2) to experience the resilience building of competition in an area other than athletics, and 3) to spend more time with others who share their abilities and their interests, The Super Saturday Program has begun offering teams. Team spots are for children who have met our admission criteria and have taken classes. If after reading through the information on this page, your child is interested in a team, then fill out this form and we will share more info when we have it.
App Development
This team opportunity was pursued due to the popularity of our Scratch and Python classes. Team members are in 7th grade or above. https://www.congressionalappchallenge.us/students/rules/
Chess
Each spring at the Queen City Classic Chess Tournament our Super Saturday Knights compete under the leadership of teacher Kevin Coleman. Some of our students have formed a loosely organized social club to communicate chess playing opportunities and plan to travel together or meet up at tournaments and represent TSSP. Among the events social club members are going to are the Cincinnati Scholastic Chess Series tournaments. CSC Series tournaments with locations, times, and registration links have been added to our calendar.
Math
We are exploring the possibility of forming a team to compete in the MathWorks Modeling Challenge and/or other math competitions. We are seeking someone to coach and offer an associated class or classes – not necessarily the same someone. The class(es) would be designed to prepare students with some of the math, computing, and analytical skills needed for competitions. If your child would be interested in the class(es), email marketing@supersaturday.org to be contacted when we have more information to share. Include in the email your child’s age to help us match our planning to community interest. If your child would be interested in the team, please fill out the Team Interest Form linked at the top of this page. To be among the five TSSP alumni to participate in the M3 Challenge, the student must be a high school junior or senior and at least 13 years old or, if homeschooled, 16 to 18 years old. Registration for the M3 Challenge is 11/3/25-2/20/26, but a TSSP team will need to register early and apply for recognition of the organization. The competition is held in late February or early March.
Robotics
Starting this 2025-26 season, Super Saturday students are participating in seven robotics teams! To kick off recruitment for the 2026-27 season, these teams will be presenting during lunchtimes on four of the six winter term Saturdays. See supersaturday.org/gifted-community-enrichment for which teams are scheduled for which dates.
Due to the popularity of our LEGO® Mindstorms Robotics class, in 2023 TSSP volunteers began surveying interest in robotics teams, developing a sponsorship plan, and collecting contact info of potential team members. Our ability to offer teams for our students is dependent on grown ups stepping forward to coach. Thank you to all those who contributed their time and homes to a team. To those considering coaching, we have some experience under our belts and a network to support you.
*** TSSP Robotics annual schedule ***
January+February (winter term) – Preseason activities begin including information sessions, team visits to exhibit their robots, and efforts to survey interest among families.
March+April (spring term) – Preseason activities continue with efforts to match up students to teams. These efforts include interviewing interested families, gathering referrals from TSSP teachers, informal tryouts, and social gatherings. Aside from age, matching is attempted on similar competition goals, time commitment, interpersonal chemistry, driving distance, and supplementary skills/interests, in about that order. Some families prioritize robotics competitions above other activities, meet about three days per week, and want to advance to as far in competitions as they are able. Other families have less time and/or other higher priorities.
May – Team selections are completed. Available grant applications are submitted.
June+July – Summer activities vary greatly by team.
August – Registrations are filed.
September – iSpace FLL Challenge Kickoff
October – Local scrimmages begin. Teams get to experience a competition setting and scoring.
November – Tournaments begin.
March – Ohio state competitions, US national competition (VEX only)
late April – World championships
FIRST® LEGO® League
There are two levels to FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL) that TSSP is prepared to offer: Explore for grades 2-4, Challenge for grades 4-8. We do not currently have plans to offer the next level of FIRST® robotics for grades 7-12, FIRST® Tech Challenge, though that could change with the sourcing of additional sponsorship.
See our Google Calendar for specific dates.
For the 2025-26 season, TSSP sponsored three new FLL Challenge level teams for our Super Saturday students. These same teams all plan to compete in the 2026-27 season.
VEX Robotics Competitions
TSSP is sponsoring one new VEX IQ elementary school team. Team #99265B, Brain Batteries, received the Design Award, the second highest award available at a tournament, at their first tournament on 11/8/25, and their overall score qualified them for the national competition. They received the design award again at their second tournament on 11/15/25. On 2/22 at the International Academy’s VEX IQual Tourney, they received the Excellence Award, the highest award available. At the Ohio state championship 3/2-3, they again earned the Excellence Award, qualifying them for the World Championship in St. Louis! Please join us in congratulating them and wishing them luck at this big event April 28-30.
Thanks to a grant from Google through the Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation and the organizational efforts of Mason area parents, we have been able to help start three V5 teams for middle school age students. One of these teams, NitroBros, team #95843A has been steadily improving over the course of the season, being awarded first an Energy Award on 10/18. Most recently, they earned the Think Award in addition to being Tournament Champions, the second highest placement, at the Showdown at the Peak tournament qualifying them for the Ohio state championship 3/4-5.
To express an interest in coaching, teaching a skill building class, or contributing in some way, email us at marketing@supersaturday.org. For teens who have previously participated in FLL or VEX, you can stay involved by mentoring a team. See supersaturday.org/teens for more information.
Rocketry
Beginning with the 2025 season, we had two teams competing in the American Rocketry Challenge (TARC). Teams were composed of dedicated 6th graders and up from our classes It Is Rocket Science, Advanced Rocketry, and Master Rocketry and are coached by our teachers Shirley Lee and Ryan Cheng. Teams scored 2nd and 3rd place at the Ohio Regional Cup. For the 2026 season, we will have two Super Saturday student teams and are connected with teams competing through 4H.
Quiz
We are in the early exploratory phase for a possible quiz team. The team might participate in tournaments with Ohio Academic Competition and/or National Academic Quiz Tournaments.