Columbia County 4-H Robotics Club placed fifth in combined league competitions

DAYTON-Jeanne Walter, Coach of the FIRST Tech Challenge and Columbia County 4-H leader, said the 4-H Robotics Club will be focused on fundraising activities during the 2020-21 school year. The Club will need to pay for new robot parts, controllers, a 3-D printer, and state and national registration fees, so they can continue to compete in local, state, and national robotic competitions.

To help offset costs, there will be an 'Egg Your Yard' fundraiser for Easter Sunday. For twenty dollars the Club will hide forty candy filled eggs in your Dayton or Waitsburg yard the evening before, or on Easter morning.

Walter said the 4-H Robotic Club competed in their first FIRST Tech Challenges in the Tri-Cities in November, December and January.

Walter said Phineas Kerr, Balian Walter and Josh Reser had to design, build, program, and operate a robot to compete in the head-to-head challenge.

They competed against other twelve to eighteen-year-olds in their league, first against the other eight teams in their league, and then with a combined league of fifteen teams.

Walters said the 'Space Gatos', as they call themselves, came in fourth in their league and fifth in the combined league and won the Collins Award for both leagues. The Collins Aerospace Innovate Award celebrates a team that thinks outside the box and has the inventiveness, ingenuity, and creativity to make their design come to life.

This year's FIRST Tech Challenge was to build a capstone, move the robot autonomously to pick up blocks and stack them along with the capstone, and maneuver and park the robot, while three other robots were competing on the field. "Every year the challenge is different," Walter said.

"The team is continuously rebuilding the robot to work better, faster and gain more points as they learn more," said Walter.

There are specific rules for placing blocks and capstones. The scores are cumulative for the whole season and the teams get bonus points for challenges like building the highest skyscraper.

Each competition lasts two and a half minutes and has alliances of two teams each, one red and one blue, playing on a 12 ft. x 12 ft. field.

Walter said their robot was "very consistent" at the FIRST Tech Challenge.

"It was required to pick up blocks, place them on a huge foundation, and move the foundation. They were also required to maneuver and pivot to avoid other robots, go under the alliance bridge, park, and not get stuck on arena items," she said. "The robot had a 30-second autonomous period and the rest was controlled by a student-programmed controller to operate the robot and the robot's claw. Another student was a human helper that placed blocks and capstone for the robot to pick up."

Walter said the competitions help youth learn about team work and solving problems in real time. It also builds their confidence through public speaking and promotion efforts, along with learning about programming and designing and building robots.

"These are great kids. It was an honor to coach them and they did fantastic, their rookie year," she said.

Walters wants youth to know membership in the 4-H Robotics Club is open to students in the Waitsburg and Dayton area.

Information about the FIRST Tech Challenge is online at: firstinspires.org

For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) is an international non-profit organization that operates FIRST Robotics Competition, FIRST LEGO League. FIRST LEGO League Jr., FIRST LEGO League Jr. Discovery Edition, and FIRST Tech Challenge competitions. It was established in 1989 to develop ways to inspire students in engineering and technology fields.