Students in James Holloway’s robotics program have been hard at work preparing for the FIRST Robotics Competition in March. The students have spent six weeks creating and programming their robot for “battle”.
The mission of FIRST is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders, by engaging them in exciting Mentor-based programs that build science, engineering, and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership.
If you aren’t familiar with the competition here are the basics:
- Student teams of 10 or more construct a robot using the FIRST kit and rules
- Teams create the robot and program it with code to make the robot complete obstacles
- The students must create a business plan, brand and community outreach for their presentation
- There is a six week timeframe to construct the bot to perform tasks to beat other teams
“The program was awarded money through a grant from the Texas Workforce Commission to assist with purchasing our robotics kit and entry fee for the competition,” said Holloway. “We want to continue to promote this unique program so we can grow it at Frenship.”
District and Regional competitions begin in late February and continue through April. Teams that qualify at these events are then invited to the FIRST Championship at the end of April. The Frenship Team will compete at the Hub City Regional on Friday, April 1-April 3 at the United Supermarkets Arena.
