Three Northland teams comprised of approximately 25 students will join the BotsKC competition April 22 and 23 at Rockhurst High School in Kansas City.
The Northland competitors will join those from more than 20 metro area schools in the exciting competition. The event is the first in two years that will be open to spectators.
Kim Palomarez, executive director for the Northland’s KC Tech Academy and BotsKC, said the competition is through the National Robotics League that includes at total 33 middle school, high school, and collegiate level teams competing from six different states. Their work represents eight months of effort with industry mentors to build and battle light-weight robots in a gladiator-style competition.
The students have also spent the year honing valuable STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) skills as well as the intangibles of teamwork, competitive spirit, and pride of ownership. “Now, they’ll put their bots to the test,” she said. “The event is free and open to the public.”
Palomarez said the contests are fun but represent much more as well. “There are more than 76,000 manufacturing jobs in the metro Kansas City area, and the industry is expected to grow by more than five percent in the next decade,” she said. “Area manufacturers say one of their biggest challenges is finding qualified employees to fill the void left by the retiring baby-boomer generation.”
Internships, scholarships and jobs are available for students in the Kansas City area right now. “BotsKC positions students to fill this gap, and they’ll be making an extremely competitive salary,” she said.
The two-day BotsKC competition will be from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Friday, April 22 and 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, April 23. All events will be at Rockhurst High School, 9301 State Line Rd., Kansas City, MO 64114. Masks are not required. If you can’t attend but still want to get in on the action, beginning Friday, April 22 you can follow the teams via livestream on the BotsKC YouTube channel.
