by Missy Lehto
The L’Anse Area School’s (LAS) Robotics team competed in their “first” FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics competition in Escanaba March 17 and 18. Out of 39 teams, LAS Robotics placed ninth in overall performance ranking and 16th in matches. This is the first year for the L’Anse Robotics team with coach and mentor Cara Wightman, who currently teaches Environmental Earth Science, Chemistry I, Conceptual Physics, and Science 8 at LAS. The robotics competition is designed to help high school-aged students discover how interesting and rewarding the lives of engineers and scientists can be. It is a sport where participants play with and learn from the professionals about designing and building. The game rules are different and are a surprise every year. The challenge is to design your robot to do specific tasks throughout the game to get to the end. To meet a new challenge each year, teams hone teamwork skills, design, build, and program a robot during six weeks to perform tasks against a field of competitors, create a team “brand,” and raise needed funds. Participants use the same tools used by professional engineers. To read more, subscribe to the L’Anse Sentinel online, or buy a print copy at our local retailers.