The Niagara County 4-H Circuit Stompers robotics team is recruiting new members and will host an open house from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at the 4-H Training Center, Niagara County Fairgrounds, 4487 Lake Ave. The team formerly based at Newfane High School is open to all interested youths, aged 13 to 18 years, from any county / any school district.
Circuit Stompers FIRST Robotics Competition Team 378 recently entered a partnership with Niagara County 4-H to expand its potential membership beyond the Newfane school district. By linking with 4-H, the FIRST Robotics experience is available to home-schooled youths, for instance, according to 4-H Youth Educator and STEM specialist Christina Wright. In Niagara County, presently, Lockport High School is the only school fielding a competitive robotics team.
Through the partnership, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Niagara County will be a STEM hub for youths to gather after school and on weekends, to plan, build and practice with their robot, overseen by the Circuit Stompers team, which includes adult mentors such as longtime volunteer/lead mentor Dan Sherwood, who works in the engineering industry.
FIRST is a worldwide organization with several thousand FRC teams. Circuit Stompers FRC Team 378 was founded in 1999 by GM and Delphi to address shortages of technical and engineering employees for their Lockport facilities. Every first Saturday in January, the team is given a new challenge from FIRST. They then have roughly eight weeks to research, design, build and program a robot, to compete with other teams from around the world. The last event of the season is the world championships in Houston, Texas, with the top 600 qualifying teams.
For more information about the Niagara County 4-H Circuit Stompers, parents/guardians may email team0378@gmail.com.
Visit firstinspires.org for more information about FIRST Robotics.