4-H Palouse Area SciBorgs earn award

YAKIMA - The 4-H Palouse Area Robotics Team (PART) SciBorgs received the Engineering Inspiration Award during a competition in the Yakima Sundome on March 18-19.

They competed with 21 other high school teams from all over the league's Pacific Northwest District. The 4-H PART SciBorgs are Team 4061 and comprised of high school students from Colfax, Pullman, Moscow, and the surrounding area.

"The FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) STEM program gives students from around Whitman County the framework to invent, design, build, test, and grow as future leaders," said an organizer.

The 2022 FIRST Rapid React game has teams trying to get as many jumbo tennis balls as they can into funnels set in the middle of a 30-foot by 60-foot playing field.

Another match begins with 125-pound robots in autonomous play for the first 15 seconds and then switches to a tele-op mode where the operator and driver take the controls.

The three-on-three match's end-game has the robots trying to climb three ascending monkey bars for bonus ranking points.

The matches feature the robot drive team, comprised of an operator, driver, coach, technician, and human player. The SciBorgs drive team consists of Carter Casten, of Colfax, Benji Sobeloff-Gittes, of Moscow, Caden Perry, of Moscow, and Brian Fugh and Amy Fugh, of Pullman).

The PART SciBorg team competes next on April 1-2 at West Valley High School in Spokane Valley where they are competing against other high school teams including Garfield-Palouse, St George's, Medical Lake, Kettle Falls, and West Valley.