For Press Release:
National 4-H Council awarded a $2,500 grant to the Huntington County 4-H robotics team. This funding will support the team as they work together throughout the year to learn how to build robots and participate in robotics competitions across the country.
To support 4-H’s expanded robotics programming, and in anticipation of the upcoming 2010 launch of 4-H’s comprehensive robotics curriculum, National 4-H Council raised grants that were awarded to forty-three 4-H Robotics Teams in twenty states nation-wide. These 4-H teams will participate in at least one FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), or FIRST LEGO League (FLL) event.
FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) and National 4-H Council formed an alliance earlier this year to expand robotics clubs and programming among new youth across the nation. Through these grants, twenty-seven of the forty-three grants awarded are helping to establish brand new 4-H Robotics Teams in several states.
Huntington County 4-H Robotics Team #1501 will participate in the FIRST Kick-off event on Saturday, January 9, 2010, held locally at Huntington University Science Building. 4-H members and adult mentors will begin the planning and design stages for building this year’s robot to compete in the Boilermaker Regional, scheduled at Purdue University March 18-20.
About 4-H:
4-H is a community of six million young people across America learning leadership, citizenship, and life skills. National 4-H Council is the private sector, non-profit partner of National 4-H Headquarters (USDA). The 4-H programs are implemented by the 106 Land Grant Universities and the Cooperative Extension System through their 3,100 local Extension offices across the country. Learn more about 4-H at www.4-h.org
Huntington County 4-H Robotics and Crestview Middle School, Thunderbirds FIRST LEGO League finishes in the top five at Hammond, IN qualifier today. The team won a technical award for Best Robot Design. There are four main scoring categories: Teamwork, Technical Robot Presentation, Smart Move Project Presentation and Robot Performance. Teams are selected based on overall scoring in each of the four main categories of which Thunderbirds FLL 3669 scored highest in Technical Robot Presentation. Due to the nature of the competition core values, it is unknown the exact ranking of the top five in a qualifier other than they have succeed in all four categories above to advance onward. The State Finals will be held at the IPFW campus December 12th. Approximately 48 other teams out of about 150 teams total in the State of Indiana will complete for Championship title for Indiana. Only 1 to 2 teams move onward to Atlanta in April where the World Finals will crown the World Champion LEGO team for Smart Move.
More information about State Finals:
http://www.etcs.ipfw.edu/fll/
National FLL website:
http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/fll/default.aspx?id=970
Pictures from Dawn Chesterman’s Facebook Profile
Huntington County 4-H Robotics and Crestview Middle School will take their first “rookie” team to Hammond, IN this weekend, Saturday, November 14th to compete at the Indiana State Qualifier rounds for FIRST LEGO league this season. FIRST LEGO League (FLL) started for Huntington 4-H Robotics 9 weeks ago when the international challenge theme was released world wide called “Smart Move”. This theme challenges the team to think of innovate ways to look at how things are moved in this world and come up with solutions to everyday problems.
Also part of the Smart Move theme is a robotics competition built entirely of LEGOs with a programmable computer that the kids learn to program using feedback sensors to accomplish missions for points.
Thunderbirds will compete against 20 other teams in the Indiana region in hopes of advancing to the State Championship held at IPFW in Fort Wayne, IN coming December 12th, 2009.
Members of the team include: Students Henry Easley, Quinten Lintz, Brooke Elston, Jason Hart, Drew Kennedy, Austin Kennedy, Sarah Jernigan, Kyler McVoy, Elijah Chesterman, Jiosa Johnson, Jacob Hunnicutt Adults: Coach Paul Hart, Engineering Mentor Chris Elston and Teacher Sponsor Mr. Travis Bollinger.
For more information about the State Qualifier:
http://webs.calumet.purdue.edu/technology/first-lego-league-information/
For more information about the State Championship:
http://www.etcs.ipfw.edu/fll/
Huntington County 4-H Robotics (Team THRUST 1501) competed in a fall rookie exhibition event Saturday, October 17, 2009 at Southport High School in Indianapolis, IN. THRUST played with a 9-1-1 record, 9 wins, 1 loss, and 1 tie to capture the champion title for 2009. Alliance teams the Digital Goats, team 829 from Walker Career Center and Pulse Robotics, team 1555 from North White High School defeated other alliance teams in a double elimination competition playing the 2009 USFIRST game called Lunacy.
C.A.G.E Match is a pre-season rookie event designed to get students that have not been previously enrolled in a USFIRST robotics program excited about how the competition events are run and met other teams in the State of Indiana. 18 teams from the State of Indiana competed at C.A.G.E match this past weekend along with one team from Kentucky.
Competing with the 2009 season robot Skyhawk, THRUST team members attended the fall event which retires the past season robot and starts a brand new season looking forward.
We look forward to another great season start for 2010, we can’t thank our sponsors enough that allow us to continue to enforce science, technology, engineering and math in our Huntington Community.
For more information about the C.A.G.E Match see the website:
http://www.thecagematch.com
For more information about joining Huntington County 4-H Robotics please visit our website:
http://www.huntingtonrobotics.org/
Here at Huntington County 4-H Robotics, we are excited to start a new LEGO team this season for middle school students. Currently we have partnered with Crestview Middle School science teachers Mr. Milton and Mr. Bolinger along with Trace Hinesley, Director of Special Programs, Huntington Schools. Although a LEGO team can only consist of ten students per team, we are excited to start up a program like this for Crestview. We welcome those students that have applied for the 2009 season Smart Move LEGO themed project. Welcome LEGO leaguers! First Robotics LEGO kickoff will be September 3rd this year, keep an eye out here: US FIRST Legos
