BALLSTON SPA — Saratoga County 4-H Robovines FTC 6955 showcased their Robotics knowledge and skills at the FTC Qualifier held last weekend at Corning-Painted Post High School. For their efforts, the team made up of youth from across Saratoga County won the Championship, while setting the mark with the top score in NYS this year. The FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) is broken down in so many ways and the team won the overall game. They were also acknowledged with the top award of the “Inspire Award”. They received the 2nd place Motivate, 3rd place Control, and 2nd place Innovate. With this win it qualifies the Robovines for the FTC Regionals at Mohawk Community College on March 6th.
The Inspire Award is a judged award given to the team that best embodies the ‘challenge’ of the FIRST Tech Challenge program. The team the receives this award is a strong ambassador for FIRST programs and a role model FIRST team. This team is a top contender for many other judged awards and is a gracious competitor. The Inspire Award winner is an inspiration to other Teams, acting with Gracious Professionalism® both on and off the Playing Field. This team shares their experiences, enthusiasm, and knowledge with other teams, sponsors, their community, and the judges. Working as a unit, this team will have shown success in performing the task of designing and building a Robot.
The final part of the fay involved two teams making up an alliance to compete together against a second alliance. The grouping paired the Robovines with Mechanical Meltdown, a team of youths from Central NY. The alliance won both the semifinals and finals to win the overall Robot Game. The alliance currently has five out of the top ten scores in New York State.
“What an amazing day for an amazing group of kids,” said Lisa Russell, Robovines FTC 6955 Coach. “It was very exciting to see all of their hard work pay off at this competition. I look forward to where the youth will take this moving forward. We thank Saratoga County 4-H for this opportunity.”
For more information about the Robotics Program and 4-H Youth Development of Saratoga County, contact the Saratoga County 4-H Office at 518-885-8995 or visit www.ccesaratoga.org.
