Lansing High School Robotics Team Gears Up for Greater Kansas City Regional Competition
Lansing USD469 proudly announces that our Lansing High School Robotics Team is competing at the Greater Kansas City Regional Competition at Lee's Summit North High School on April 4 - 6, 2024.
According to the KC FIRST website, "Teams from Kansas City and beyond will compete with 120-pound robots of their own design, combining the excitement of sport with the rigors of science and technology at this regional competition in Lee's Summit, MO."
"The program combines the challenges of designing a 100-pound robot to accomplish a specific series of tasks in a limited timeframe," said Lansing High School Robotics teachers and sponsor Dr. Anne Krebs. "In early January, the team received the game manual for CRESCENDO, a game requiring robots to pick up note to score in an Amp or a Speaker. At the end of the match, robots hang on a chain on the Stage."
In addition to the challenge of designing, building, wiring, and programming the robot, the team must collaborate with two other robots on an alliance each match, all trying to score more points than the opposing alliance.
This robotics program combines engineering, building skills, game strategy, business skills, and computer science with the overarching need for problem-solving energy and effort. Regardless of their role on the team, students benefit from a real-world, hands-on learning opportunity in the extracurricular Robotics Team.
"At the beginning of the year as new people join Robotics, we as students get the opportunity to learn, build upon our skills, and meet new people," said one of our students. "When 'build season' starts, the game's new challenge and rules are released, and we are able to put our skills together to build something we consider cool. The process of building a functional robot that requires moving parts, using new tools, wiring, coding, and more is difficult."
The team said that even with the difficulty, they had a lot of fun and built new friendships. "As competition rolls around, we are nervous and excited, but going to the competition and seeing what you helped make and function on the field in the way you had hoped is extremely rewarding. Going to competition as a team is even more rewarding and exciting together."
- Thank you to Dr. Krebs for the photos and information in this article.