Maine robotics teams excel at world championships

Robotics teams from eight schools represented Maine well at three recent world championships: FIRST Robotics, VEX Robotics and FIRST Lego League.

FIRST Robotics was founded with a mission to inspire innovation in young people with an interest and participation in science and technology and four Maine teams competed at its World Championship held in St. Louis, Missouri.  The Riot Crew from South Portland High School finished 29^th in a field of 100 teams with a record of 6-4-0. Messalonskee High School fielded team Infinite Loop, which finished 52^nd with a record of 6-4-0. Team BERT from Bonny Eagle High School placed 61^st with a 5-5-0 record.  Rounding out Maine’s entrants was RobOTies from Old Town High School with a 73^rd place finish.

VEX Robotics exists to connect students with mentors in technology-based programs to build the interpersonal skills needed for success in the 21^st century and three Maine teams traveled to Anaheim, California for the VEX World Championship. The 6-3-1 Robo-Rangers from Traip Academy finished 20^th while Fatal Error from United Technologies Center in Bangor finished 64^th out of 86 teams with a 3-6-1 record.  The PHS Bulldogs from Portland High School finished 80^th.

FIRST Lego League is a robotics program designed to get young people excited about science and technology while teaching them valuable employment and life skills and the FIRST World Championship hosted in St. Louis, Missouri had one Maine team in attendance.  Bar Harbor sent Oh Boy. . . These Pickles are Natural Disasters which finished 3^rd on the table top competition with 570 points.

These teams exemplify some of the promising Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) youth throughout the state of Maine.

For more information on these robotics programs and STEM Education in Maine, please contact Maine DOE’s Science and Technology Specialist Shari Templeton at shari.templeton@maine.gov or 207-624-6880.