Students, teachers, parents and mentors crowded the West Kauai Technology & Visitor Center earlier this month to receive $1,000 from Young Bros. in support of the first year of Waimea High School FIRST Robotics. All attendees were treated to a
Students, teachers, parents and mentors crowded the West Kauai Technology & Visitor Center earlier this month to receive $1,000 from Young Bros. in support of the first year of Waimea High School FIRST Robotics. All attendees were treated to a breakfast buffet followed by a videotaped presentation from FIRST headquarters in New Hampshire explaining the Robotics game for 2008.
Waimea High School is the first and only public high school on Kaua‘i to enter the international FIRST Robotics competition for high schools. Young Bros. has awarded the Menehune Robotics team with a $1000 grant to help them participate in the inaugural FIRST Robotics Hawai‘i Regional competition, which will be held at the end of March at the University of Hawai‘i. The Menehune Robotics team has raised over $16,000 in grants to cover their participation in the FIRST program, supplies and tools to build their robot and travel expenses to participate in the competition at UH.
Shop teacher Bob Saligumba is leading the Menehune Robotics team, assisted by math and physics teacher David Mecham and business teacher Joyce Evens, with 100 percent support from Principal Larry Kaliloa. Twenty students, from all grade levels, have signed up as Menehune Robotics team members.
The Menehune Robotics team was organized by and continues to be coordinated by Oceanit’s Program Support Specialist Mary Lu Kelley. Many of the staff at Oceanit will be offering their mentoring services as the program progresses. Pioneer Operations Manager Frank Altobelli and staff from CSC and PMRF are also supporting the team as mentors.
The FIRST Robotics Competition stages short games played by remote-controlled robots. The robots are designed and built in six weeks by a team of 10 to 20 high school students and a handful of engineers and mentors. The students pilot the robots on the field.
In 2008, more than 1,300 high schools internationally will be participating in the FIRST Robotics program, including 18 high schools from Hawai‘i.
