Clayton High to host robotics tournament

Submitted by SHANNON MANN

CLAYTON — The robots are coming!

Don’t worry, this isn’t the newest sci-fi movie where robot borgs take over the local town. Rather, it’s the world’s leading youth-serving nonprofit advancing STEM education that is taking over Clayton High School in early March.

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology) Robotics will hold a district robotics competition on March 11-12 from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. This is the first time that Johnston County has been home to a district robotics event. Nearly 2,000 students, coaches, volunteers and spectators will take part in the two-day tournament aimed at building students’ knowledge and skills in design, engineering, coding, marketing and business.

Thirty-four teams from across the state will descend on Clayton High School, setting up 10x10 pits and competing on a field roughly the size of a high school basketball court.

Johnston County is home to four FIRST Robotics Competition teams, including G-Force Robotics, an all-girl rookie team based in Clayton. Clayton Chamber of Commerce President Dana Wooten saw the team speak at a Clayton Women in Networking meeting last July and knew that Clayton would be the perfect place to host FIRST North Carolina’s growing tournament structure.

“The chamber is very excited to partner with so many entities to host the FIRST Robotics competition here in Clayton,” Wooten said. “We realize the economic impact that tournaments such as these can bring to a community. A competition in the hometown of G-Force Robotics seemed like a no-brainer. We hope that this will increase awareness of how engineering technology, such as robotics, is used in Johnston County industries such as Grifols, OPW Global and Caterpillar.”

FIRST Robotics Competition, or FRC as most students call it, boasts nearly 3,400 teams across a span of 32 countries. In 2022, 80,000 students participated in the program geared to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders and innovators. North Carolina is home to 75 teams from many different counties.

“FIRST is so much more than robots,” said Marie Hopper, president of FIRST North Carolina. “Our students discover a safe space to explore and learn about STEM and themselves. They discover their leadership potential and their abilities to collaborate as a team. FIRST is growing in North Carolina because our students are hungry for meaningful, hands-on experiences that help them to grow into thriving, contributing members of society.”

Students have two months to build a 125-pound robot designed to meet specific challenges for that season. Participants develop skills in teamwork, problem solving, communication and leadership, preparing them for success in school and the workforce, no matter what path they take.

Leigh Dement, associate scientist at Focal Medical and coach of G-Force Robotics, knows the importance of the program having first been a participant herself while in high school, and later becoming a mentor and coach. She said the program lays the foundation for gaining both technical and interpersonal skills.

“FIRST gives students the opportunity to gain real world design and fabrication skills, and hosts it in a collaborative environment that builds universally applicable leadership, problem-solving and communication skills,” Dement said.

One major benefit of the program is that students also work with and learn from professionals in the field. “Who better to gain career-applicable skills from than professionals in these industries? The students on our team are learning from engineers at Caterpillar, Schneider Electric and Novo Nordisk, including those who developed their own STEM interests through robotics competitions in FIRST, NASA and even Discovery Channel’s Battlebots. The opportunity to be mentored by these professionals to develop such critical and advanced skills is one that most teenagers are not exposed to.”

Johnston County, and Clayton in particular, have several corporations and businesses that support this growing program from Caterpillar and Grifols to family practitioners and attorneys, and even the local Rotary clubs.

“Businesses and business leaders see the value of programs such as this because they help to prepare students for careers that require creativity, critical thinking, teamwork, problem solving and much more,” Wooten said. “These skills translate for a future workforce for employers. I have seen G-Force in action and have come to know some of the young women who participate. Their futures are extremely bright.”

All four Johnston County teams will compete at the tournament held at Clayton High School. The event is free and open to the public. For more information about FIRST North Carolina, visit https://www. firstnorthcarolina.org/.

Members of FIRST Robotics Competition Team 9008, G-Force Robotics, headquartered in Clayton, work on their robot. More than 30 teams from across the state will compete in a district robotics event on March 11-12, 2023 at Clayton High School.