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FIRST Robotics Championship: 16 4 H Robotics Teams to Participate

Apr 24 2013

National 4‑H Council is proud to announce that 16 4‑H Robotics teams have advanced to the national 2013 FIRST Robotics Championship. The competition, organized by FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), will take place April 24-27 at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, Missouri where 4-H Robotics teams will compete among 400 teams for the national title.

The FIRST Robotics Competition is an international robotics program geared toward youth ages 6-18 and includes three categories: LEGO League World Festival, Robotics Competition Championship and Tech Challenge World Championship. The program combines the practical application of science and technology with the excitement of a championship-sporting event in a competitive game environment.

During this year's competition, teams will take part in the Ultimate Ascent challenge. Two competing alliances, consisting of three robots each, play on a flat, 27-foot by 54-foot field. The object of the game is for each alliance to score as many discs into their goals as they can during a two-minute and fifteen-second match. Teams will also have the opportunity to earn bonus points at the beginning and end of each match where robots operate independently and compete by scoring discs and climbing the height of pyramids in the arena.

The FIRST Robotics Competition officially kicked off at the top of the year when participants were first introduced to the game and received the official game rules. During the kick-off, teams were also given a robot starter kit and the specs for engineering a 120-pound robot, which had to specifically be built to play the given challenge. In late February, participants geared up for game challenges and teams competed locally and regionally over the course of a six-week period leading up to the championship tournament.

"This year marks a four-year partnership with FIRST Robotics and since then 52 teams have advanced to the championship competition with the support of our dedicated volunteers, coaches, and mentors, and our sponsors Lockheed Martin and jcpenney," said Donald T. Floyd Jr. , National 4-H Council president and CEO. "The talented youth in our 4-H Robotics program deserve to be commended for their hard work, creativity and dedication to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)."

Five years ago, 4-H set out to engage one million new youth in 4-H science programs by 2013, introducing youth to varied STEM-related careers. With the help of the 4-H Robotics program, 4-H reached its goal ahead of schedule last fall—adding to the five million youth who were already engaged in science projects nationwide.

The 16 teams traveling to St. Louis to compete in the FIRST Robotics Championship include: