“So, it’s a really great competition for these kids to design, build, and program a robot, and our goal is to celebrate science and technology like a sport through a robotics sporting event.”
Nicki Bonczyk is event coordinator for the FIRST Robotics district event, as well as a mentor for the Holland Christian Robotics Team. FIRST means For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. This year, twenty teams pit their robots against each other in three-on-three battles, trying to get as many kickballs as possible into their basket before time runs out.
“Investing in these kids now in high school, you give them more of an opportunity to see that these are real careers for them. They say the younger you invest in someone in STEM, the more likely it is they realize this is a career.”
Teams are sponsored by companies like Gentex, Haworth and Koops Automation Systems. Often, those sponsorships lead to a student’s first tech job, even before graduating.
“Of my seven seniors, six of them work for sponsors right now because they see the value in these kids before they’ve even left high school to get them on their engineering teams, get them in their build floors, get them in their machine shops, working.”
Michigan has more robotics teams than any other state.
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