As the students of the Westerville Wild Warbots robotics team began work for the 2014 competition, they did so strengthened, in part, by a $5,000 grant from NASA.
More than 20 pupils from all three Westerville City high schools make up the Westerville Wild Warbots. The team competes as the part of the FIRST Robotics Challenge. This year’s challenge is titled “Aerial Assist.” In it, teams must build and program robots that throw and catch large, inflatable exercise balls around a field of play, passing them to their teammates and launching them into one of two goals.
This March the team will participate in the Queen City Regional competition in Cincinnati and the Buckeye Regional competition in Cleveland. If they are one of the top teams there, they can advance to the championship rounds held in St. Louis.
The worldwide competition kicked off on Saturday, January 4, when the team attended a video presentation at The Ohio State University campus where the challenge was unveiled. That afternoon the team was back in their workshop reviewing the rules and brainstorming solutions.
“This is one of the most exciting parts of the season,” said team coach Leslie Baumann, also an English teacher at Westerville North High School. “It’s so energizing to see the kids work together and share their ideas. They have such innovative solutions. And, within a week, they had built prototypes and had an early version of the robot driving around the hallways picking up and dropping off these balls.”
The NASA grant is presented to robotics teams that inspire students to pursue higher education and careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Teams applying for the grant had to show how it works toward these goals as well as demonstrate financial need. The team counts on grants, donations, and sponsorships, as well as fees paid by the students, to fund the cost of building the robots as well as entry fees for competitions that can be as much as $6,000.
“Our team simply couldn’t exist if it wasn’t for grants like the one from NASA or the contributions we get from our other supporters,” said Baumann. “We are so thankful to them for helping fund this important opportunity for students. This is an amazing chance for them to take the theories and skills that they learn in the classroom and apply them in a real-world, competitive, environment.”
The acronym FIRST refers to “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.” The organization’s mission is “to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership.”
More information about the team and FIRST is available through the team’s website at www.wildwarbots.org.