First Tech Challenge team coach John Hollar helps with the assembly of a tool chest by students, from left, Jason Jacobs of Woodington Middle School and Naylan Ramirez, Maddy White and Zachary Yarus, all of Contentnea-Savannah K-8 School. Submitted photo.

New First Tech Challenge robotics team up and rolling

Naylan Ramirez likes to build things, so he was in his element Friday with a socket wrench in hand, working with other LCPS students to literally get the school district’s new First Tech Challenge robotics team up and rolling.

First Tech Challenge offers middle and high school students the opportunity to design, build, test and program robots created to perform specific tasks during competition with other schools and school districts. Seed money for LCPS’s entry into the arena of robotics competition came from a $17,781 state grant the district won in 2019, the second Coding and Mobile App Development Grant awarded LCPS in three years.

“We’ve been meeting with the students virtually since August just to talk them through the process, looking at the game manuals and generating some interest around what the game is. Today is a chance for them to dig in, get their hands on the tools, start learning what the robotics parts are and inventorying,” Amy Jones, the district’s director of high school education and CTE and an organizer of the team.

Naylan, a seventh grader at Contentnea-Savannah K-8 School, sorted tools with E.B. Frink Middle School eighth graders Erika Santiago and Kimberly Bu Hernandez before joining another group of students to assembly a metal tool chest. They worked to put the wheels on the base of the chest.

“I like building with LEGOs and stuff, so my grandpa started buying me the robot parts and I started building that,” Naylan said. “Then heard about this team and I joined because I like building.”

The students who gathered Friday in the media center at Kinston High School worked under the guidance of Jones and coaches John Hollar, Stephanie Harrell and Sara Levin. Hollar is on the district’s IT staff, Harrell is the digital learning specialist at North Lenoir High; and Levin is the media coordinator at Kinston High.

Competition is scheduled to begin in December with the team’s first virtual scrimmage. Students will record their robot in action, share the engineering design process with judges and rank their points against teams from across the region. The scrimmage is designed to prepare teams for state-level competition in February.

The competition itself is “like a board game for robots,” Jones said. “The robots have to move waddle sticks, throw a disc at a target, try to shoot into a tower, then they have to get game pieces out of the area. So the robot has to be able to move, to pick things up and to throw things.”

But team members also get to practice skills outside the realm of engineering. Some are involved in developing game strategy, others in creating the team’s social media presence and others in fundraising.

“We already know we have a need for a little over $300 to purchase two chassis for the robots,” Jones said.

Currently, a dozen students make up the LCPS First Tech Challenge team, but Jones says the door in open for more. “We have enough funding and parts for two teams,” she said. “We would really like to build two so they could battle against each other and improve their times and work through some of the kinks.”

Middle and high school students who would like to sign up can indicate their interest through an online form at https://tinyurl.com/y4zgftg6.