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GULL LAKE TO HOST ROBOTICS COMPETITION
District Event Will Draw 40 Teams to Gull Lake High School
RICHLAND—Gull Lake High School will be the host site of a FIRST Robotics District Competition that will attract 40 teams and well over 1,000 spectators to Southwest Michigan.
The competition commences with opening ceremonies at 10:30am on Friday, March 2nd, and concludes with an awards ceremony Saturday, March 3rd at 5pm.
FIRST Robotics (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science & Technology) is a national, not-for-profit organization that exists to inspire young people’s interest and participation in science and technology. There are about 58,000 high school students that participate on 2,300 FIRST Robotics teams across the United States. {FRC}
Teams are led by coaches and adult mentors, often with engineering or machining backgrounds. Many teams partner with corporate sponsors as they prepare for competition. Among the sponsorship partners of teams competing at Gull Lake are: Western Michigan University, the Herman Miller Foundation, the GM Foundation, Stryker, Whirlpool, Kellogg’s, and Gentex.
Students have six weeks to build robots from a common parts kit, issued by FIRST Robotics. The robots are designed to complete a variety of tasks and competitions and typically weigh about 150 pounds.
Teams that advance from the Gull Lake District Competition will compete at the Michigan FIRST Robotics State Championships, held at Eastern Michigan University, April 12-14. State Champions from around the country will compete at the FIRST Robotics Championships, held April 25-28 in St. Louis, Missouri.
Teams competing at Gull Lake in March hail from all over Michigan, including Petoskey, Brighton, Boyne City, and the Grand Rapids area. Local teams include students from Kalamazoo Public Schools, Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency (KRESA), Harper Creek Community Schools, Lakeview School District, Vicksburg Community Schools, Gull Lake Community Schools, Pennfield Schools, and Southwest Michigan Virtual Academy.
