By Ann Houston
Oklahoma Department of CareerTech

On Jan. 6, 12 teams of Oklahoma high schoolers, some aspiring to be engineers, learned the rules for an international Robotics competition

Oklahoma’s 12 teams comprised of more than 200 10th –12th grade students viewed the announcement together at the Stillwater kick off on the Oklahoma State University Stillwater campus hosted by the CEAT, joining thousands of students across the country.

“FIRST Robotics is more than a game. It is an initiative designed to create student interest in science, engineering and technology,” Reid said.“FIRST focuses attention on a critical national problem in technological workforce development.

“By participating in the Kickoff connection in Stillwater, team members will learn about the 2007 competition and receive the rules and kit of parts without delay,” Reid said.

The Oklahoma teams have been formed by students from Oklahoma CareerTech’s technology centers, public, private and home schools to compete in this event. When the robots are finished, the teams have the opportunity to compete in a regional event. Top teams will be invited to compete in the national event in the Atlanta Dome. One Oklahoma team will compete in the New Orleans regional, four will compete in Kansas City, and seven will compete in Houston. 

The Oklahoma teams include Moore Norman Technology Center; Payne County Robotics – a Stillwater home-school team; McClain High School for Science and Technology, Tulsa East Central High School, Booker T. Washington and Memorial High School, Tulsa; Francis Tuttle Technology Center and Metro Technology Center, Oklahoma City; Tri County Technology Center, Bartlesville; Tulsa Technology Center; Jenks High School and Ponca City High School.

“FIRST Robotics gives students the opportunity to work as an engineering team with real-world circumstances – limited resources and limited time,” according to Robin Schott. Schott is the innovative initiatives and service manager at the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education. “This important educational initiative is accomplished by forming teams of committed students that build robots during a six week period.”

Once teams form they are paired with mentors from the engineering field. Mentors are practicing engineers who help teams with ideas for the design and building of the robots that meet the constraints and conditions of the competition.

“The competition encourages students to work with engineering mentors to solve very complicated engineering problems, and provides them the avenue to use ‘gracious professionalism’ while helping other teams at the competition,” Schott said.

Gracious professionalism is a teamwork concept promoted by FIRST.

Immediately following the NASA satellite broadcast announcement, the Oklahoma students  viewed a playing field constructed by Ron Markum, senior research engineer in one of OSU’s research centers and an advisor of the Payne County team. Team captains received kits of parts and then break their teams out into separate rooms for brain storming sessions. The kits, in two crates that are 24 x 24 x 32 inches and up to three smaller boxes, will be transported home with each team.

“Our teams are in for some surprises this year,” said Jack Sellers, P.E., Ed.D. Sellers is a retired electrical engineer from Tulsa and volunteers to coordinate FIRST Robotics in Oklahoma. “The design and build season begins immediately following the national announcement, so team members will need to be ahead on class work as the following six weeks will be busy.”

Sellers and Tonya Scott, organizers of the Stillwater kickoff event, are responsible for creating a high level of interest for FIRST in Oklahoma, Reid said.

Scott is a biology teacher at Ponca City High School and is the advisor for the state’s most experienced Robotics team. This is Ponca City’s eighth year in the competition.

“Without Tonya’s passion and her tenacity, we (Oklahoma) would not be where we are today -- by a long way,” Reid said.

“From my experience with FIRST during the past seven years, the students will work harder and have more fun doing so than at any other time in their lives,” Scott said. “They will learn more than how to design and build a robot. They will learn teambuilding and life skills that will be invaluable in future years.”

Related Links

You can quickly learn about the competition and the rules here. Click on the play button to start the video. If you would like more information about this year's FIRST robotic competition, please visit the official website. http://www.usfirst.org