Bullock Creek Team 3770, BlitzCreek is pictured during the 2020 FIRST Robotics Competition Kickoff at Bullock Creek High School with their World Record Pyramid. (Photo provided)

Bullock Creek Team 3770, BlitzCreek is pictured during the 2020 FIRST Robotics Competition Kickoff at Bullock Creek High School with their World Record Pyramid. (Photo provided)

Bullock Creek Team 3770, BlitzCreek is pictured during the 2020 FIRST Robotics Competition Kickoff at Bullock Creek High School with their World Record Pyramid. (Photo provided)

Bullock Creek Team 3770, BlitzCreek is pictured during the 2020 FIRST Robotics Competition Kickoff at Bullock Creek High School with their World Record Pyramid. (Photo provided)

FIRST Robotics, building robots and breaking world records

Hundreds of local high school students and mentors recently gathered at Bullock Creek High School and at the Carpenter Robotics Center for the 2020 FIRST Robotics Competition FRC international Kickoff broadcast event.

For this season, more than 100,000 high school students are participating in 35 countries worldwide.

After watching the broadcast, teams picked up their game manual and kit of parts and began strategizing and designing their robots. FRC Kickoff marks the beginning of the eight-week 'build season,' during which high school teams brainstorm, prototype, design, fabricate, and program their 140-pound robot for competition. Teams must build a unique, made-from-scratch robot each season.

As part of their 10-year team celebration, Bullock Creek's Team 3770 (Blitz Creek) also worked on breaking the Guinness World Record for tallest toilet paper pyramid, which was on display at Kickoff.

"We had an official height which is 16 feet, 3 and 5/8ths inches," said Maxton Herst, a senior on BlitzCreek. "That's almost two feet over what the current world record is."

Over 27,000 toilet paper rolls made up the pyramid, which took the team 16 hours to build.

BlitzCreek mentor Jamie Forbes said: "Robotics is a really cool program in the sense that it gives students not only the engineering background, but also the ability to put their hands and ideas into action. The team is very excited for the season. We have spent our build time tackling the game, which focuses on shooting and climbing in a Star Wars themed field."

The 2020 competition is called INFINITE RECHARGESM and is in alignment with the 'FIRST Rise' Star Wars theme for all FIRST programs. The challenge requires two alliances of three robots each to collect and score enough power cells into targets to be able to spin the color-coded control panel, which activates the Shield Generator. Near the end of the 2.5-minute match, robots climb on the Shield Generator Switch in the center of the field.

Students from Dow High's Team 2619 (The Charge) are among the teams designing and building their robots at the Carpenter Robotics Center.

"I like this year's game and am looking forward to see how much defense people play, along with seeing the different hanging designs for the Shield Generator Switch," said Robert Roe, a freshman on The Charge.

"Any game with climbing is going to be difficult," added David Watkins, a junior and assistant mechanical lead on The Charge. "The Switch swings around so it will definitely make it more interesting."

Many other local high school teams are also actively working on finishing their new robots, including Midland High's Team 5509 (Like a Boss), Midland Home School Team 5424 (Rogue Robots), Calvary Baptist Academy's Team 6753 (RoboKings), Freeland's Team 5166 (Fabricators), Hemlock's Team 5712 (Gray Matter) and Meridian's Team 5203 (Volatile Chaos Inhibitors).

FIRST stands for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology" and seeks to inspire the next generation of science and technology leaders. Students have the opportunity to discover, explore, and innovate in a competitive and exciting environment.

H.H. Dow High School will once again host a FIRST Robotics District Competition for high school teams on March 20-21. The event is free to the public and all are welcome. More information can be found online at http://www.first-glbr.org/ and https://www.firstinspires.org/

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FIRST Robotics, building robots and breaking world records - Midland Daily News