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Motion commotion: Robotics in Eastern Oregon
Education
Photo courtesy of Umatilla Robotics
By JENNIFER COLTON
In April of this year, a robot
from Eastern Oregon traveled to
St. Louis, stormed a castle and
threw boulder dodge balls. Run
by a remote control and par ally
self-propelled, the robot stood its
ground against hundreds of other
robots and world-class compe on
– but this robot wasn’t built in a
big city by a major corpora on. All
the fabrica on, electrical work and
programming was done in a simple
classroom behind the shop room
at Uma lla High School and it went
on to compete at the FIRST Robo c
Challenge world fi nals.
Uma lla’s Team 4125 Confi den-
al didn’t bring home a medal at
the fi nals, but that hasn’t stopped
the club’s momentum from branch-
ing out across northeast Oregon.
Now in its sixth year, Uma lla’s
fl edgling program, ini ally the only
one in the county, has inspired
other districts to take on robo cs.
In the 2016-7 school year, ro-
bo cs programs or clubs are be-
ing off ered in: Echo (high school),
Hermiston (mul ple levels), Milton-
Freewater (middle school), Morrow
County (elementary through high
school), Pendleton (middle and high
school), Pilot Rock (high school),
Stanfi eld (middle and high school),
Uma lla (all levels) and Union (el-
ementary and high school).
With its success, Uma lla’s robot-
ics team has grown from nine stu-
dents in 2012 to 50 in 2016, and the
program has expanded to include
elementary and middle school stu-
dents. The high school team mem-
bers serve as mentors and coaches
for the younger classes.
Thanks to a grant in STEM –
that’s Science, Technology, Engi-
neering and Mathema cs – Uma-
Members of Umatilla’s Team 4125 Confi dential and adviser Kyle Sipe con-
trol the team’s robot during a competition in Portland earlier this year.
lla off ers robo cs programs to
all students. In Uma lla, a full 25
percent of the district’s students
par cipate in robo cs programs.
They’ve worked with the #ILook-
LikeAnEngineer campaign to raise
awareness of women in STEM
fi elds. They’ve won awards at dis-
trict and regional levels and have
been to the St. Louis world champi-
onships three mes.
FIRST, which stands for Inspira-
on and Recogni on of Science
and Technology, is a nonprofi t
based in New Hampshire. Since its
fi rst robo cs compe on in 1992,
FIRST has engaged hundreds of
thousands of students na onally
and globally. In 2017, FIRST plans to
hold two championships – one in
Houston and one in St. Louis – for
the fi rst me. Learn more at www.
fi rs nspires.org.
FIRST off ers robo cs programs
at four levels, from kindergarten
through high school. The young-
est team members start with LEGO
blocks and motorized elements,
progressing to designing, building
and programming a robot from
scratch. Teams at all levels work to
solve real-world science and en-
gineering challenges. Team 4125
Confi den al competes in the FIRST
Robo cs Challenge (FRC), the most
high-tech of the robo cs compe-
ons, requiring a full team of
students to build a robot from the
ground up.
An alternate compe on, known
as FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC),
includes 7th to 12th graders. FTC
teams launched their kick off in
September, and, in Eastern Or-
egon, it promises to be quite a fi ght
this year, as teams have formed
throughout Uma lla, Morrow and
Union coun es.
Almost all of the robo cs clubs
or programs will par cipate in a
FIRST ac vity.
Heidi Sipe, superintendent of
the Uma lla School District, says
robo cs not only teaches students
technical skills used to create and
control the robot, but also social
skills in “gracious professionalism,”
teamwork and coopera on.
“I think one of the biggest things
about robo cs is the idea of coop-
era on,” she said. “It’s the idea of
constantly keeping kids challenged
and helping them understand that
helping someone else get be er
helps everyone. That’s hard for kids
to understand, and in robo cs, they
get it.”
Students can also earn scholar-
ships either directly from organiza-
ons like FIRST or by leveraging
their robo cs experience to boost
their chances at receiving scholar-
ships elsewhere. Students from
Uma lla, for example, have gone
on to professional careers, earned
scholarships and been courted by
colleges like MIT.
“It’s a pre y neat environment,”
Sipe said. “It opens a lot of doors.”
At younger ages, robo cs teach-
es motor skills and problem-solving.
At higher levels, robo cs can help
teach programming and electrical
skills students can transfer directly
to a profession or higher educa on.
At all levels, robo cs clubs teach
teamwork, collabora on, decision
making and communica on skills.
As technology advances, having
experience in robo cs, STEM fi elds
and cri cal thinking can only help
students be successful – and all
of that is happening right here in
Eastern Oregon.
________
Jennifer Colton is news director of
KOHU and KQFM, and mother of
three, based in Pendleton.