TRC STEAM FESTIVAL EVENT AND TRC212 LAUNCH- FREE

TENNESSEE ROBOTICS CENTER OPENS ITS LABS TO THE COMMUNITY FOR THE TENNESSEE STEAM FESTIVAL — AND LAUNCHES TRC212, A NEW SATURDAY STEAM PROGRAM (GRADES 3–8)

TRC has been developing young engineers in Murfreesboro since 2011. What started in a garage is now Middle Tennessee's premier K–12 robotics and engineering program, with more than 1,000 students through its doors. TRC212 is built for families who want serious hands-on STEAM without a season-long commitment: one Saturday, one complete build, start to finish. Sessions rotate through aerospace and rocketry, engineering, science, and design — every one of them finished and taken home the same day. It debuts here, at the STEAM Festival.

Everything on October 24 is hands-on and FREE.

Take the controls of the ASTRObot, TRC's own 3D-printed robotics platform. Get up close with a student-built quarter-scale replica of NASA's Perseverance rover we call Pathfinder and see how rocker-bogie suspension lets a machine cross terrain no ordinary wheeled vehicle could manage. Watch a part travel from CAD sketch to printer bed at a live 3D printing station. Then meet the students who build, code, and drive competition robots for the FIRST Tech Challenge and the Robot Drone League.

TRC212 STEAM Saturdays: Launching October 24 at the TN STEAM Festival Event
TRC212 is our new Saturday STEAM skills program for students in grades 3–8. Each session is two hours of hands-on aerospace, rocketry, science, and engineering activities. Students take home everything they build. Launch day will be on October 24 and is free, so bring the whole family to the TN STEAM Festival and come see the STEAM lab in action. Future Saturday events will be available for scheduling online and prices will depend on the subject taught.

You can't learn engineering from a textbook alone.

Your student is learning. But are they building?

Kids learn engineering by doing engineering — hands on the parts, mind on the problem, something real to show for it at the end. Whether you homeschool with intention or you're filling the gaps a classroom can't, you've probably hit the same wall: rigorous, hands-on STEM is hard to pull off at home.

The equipment is expensive — trust me, I know. The projects need space and tools a kitchen table doesn't have. And there's a world of difference between reading about forces and motion and building the robot that has to survive them. So the kit gathers dust after one weekend. The experiment turns into a craft project. And a student who was ready for more quietly settles for less.

That's what I built TRC for. Real lab equipment, real tools, real space — and coaches who've done the work themselves and know how to hand a kid a hard problem without handing over the answer. Your student is ready for more than checking boxes.

Let's help them ENGINEER MIGHTY THINGS.

I'm Coach Mike. Navy combat veteran, carrier aviation. I earned my M.Ed. from Purdue while working full time and raising a family.

Fifteen years coaching championship robotics teams at every level. But here's the part that actually matters: I started TRC in my garage, with a few good people beside me, to teach my own sons real engineering. One is an aerospace engineer now. The other, working in digital media and audio engineering. Fifteen years and 1000+ students later, TRC is here for yours.

Engineer mighty things —

from anywhere.

For fifteen years, families across Middle Tennessee — and from states away — have driven to our robotics center in Murfreesboro so their kids could build, code, and engineer mighty things. We've watched 500+ students do exactly that.

But I kept hearing the same thing from parents: "When is TRC coming to my city?" and "I wish my kids had this in our town."

So we're answering the call. Fifteen years of daring mighty things — and today, we take our next giant leap.

TRC is going digital to bring our courses to your family, wherever you are.

• Inspiring the Next Generation of Engineers Since 2011 

schedule a tour

Visit our learning center. See the labs and talk with a mission advisor. Watch students work and ask questions.

find their mission

We'll learn about your child and match them to the right mission

and program.

launch their mission

Enroll and watch them transform from curious to confident.

TRCommunity homeschool Program

In-person

In Fall 2026, we are relaunching our Homeschool program to enhance its rigor and introduce additional daytime classes tailored for homeschool families. Our real engineering curriculum will include transcript-ready courses featuring over 30 hands-on labs, essential skills, textbooks, and assessments.

TRClasses afterschool enrichment

in-person

Signup for afternoon and evening classes for students in traditional school. Most classes include open enrollment. Also includes our new Saturday drop-in classes for fun, interactive STEM lessons we call Launch Pad 39B, which are also available for STEM outreach events in your school and community-based programs.

TRC Online learning

learn from anywhere

Discover our soon-to-be-released online curriculum, launching soon. TRC Online includes self-paced courses, interactive labs, community, and real-world engineering skills. Planned launch is Summer 2026 in time for fall class registration.

TRCompetition teams

in-person

TRC students have the opportunity to join one of the TRCompetition robotics teams in both FLL and FTC. Additionally, we provide middle school students with the chance to participate in the Robot Drone League for students interested in Drones and Robotics.

trcamp

WInter 2026

Gear up for mission launches designed to build skills, broaden your technical expertise, and drive campers toward engineering excellence and successful missions. At TRCamp, kids don't just learn about engineering—they engineer mighty things.

TRCreator labS

flexible learning

TRCreator is a weekly lab pass initiative designed for students to engage deeply in educational topics through hands-on labs. Students can select a time slot that suits them best and acquire packages of lab passes for convenient usage.