Schools
Hamilton Robotics Team Ready for National Competition
High School robotics team took home awards at two regional competitions in Wisconsin and Minnesota.
’s Charger Robotics Team 537 is making its final preparations as it gets ready to head off to nationals once again.
The team will travel to St. Louis Wednesday to compete in the FIRST Robotics national competition after finishing in fourth place at regionals, which is its best performance ever.
“We did well from an awards standpoint,” team Coach Lori Hinytz said. “We did more defense than we wanted and we wanted to be more offensive and score more.”
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The FIRST Robotics Competition pits high school students from across the county in a battle of mechanical knowledge where they must build a working robot and compete it against each other.
Besides designing the robots, the students must also put together presentations on their product and create a full analysis of what it can do.
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While some students on the team may be animating or putting together a presentation on the robot, others will build, design and program the unit.
“There’s something for everybody and it’s about more than just a robot,” Hinytz said. “The robot brings us together, but really it allows the kids to find and explore their passions.”
Besides taking fourth at regionals, the team also earned the Gracious Professionalism Award for outstanding sportsmanship and gracious professionalism in the heat of competition both on and off the field.
The team also won the Engineering Inspiration Award at the .
The team will also be part of a documentary being assembled by a Milwaukee School of Engineering student on the FIRST Robotics competition.
About 350 different teams will compete in the nationals, which will wrap up Saturday.
While there are only about 55 students on the team, Hinytz said the team’s success continues to be a testament to the teachers in the .
“We really do try to employ the 21st Century learning and promote the skills they need to do that,” she said. “I can’t do what I do in my program if my colleagues in my district hadn’t been so phenomenal in teaching those 21st Century skill from basic keyboarding at the elementary level to the scientific and advanced math skills…and my colleagues who taught my kids how to speak, write and communicate.”
