The PHS robotics team has been busy this season, recently finishing ninth out of 39 teams the weekend of Feb. 2-3 at the Montana state meet.

The Wyoming state meet is in one week, which means more work to polish and perfect their gadgets.

“Right now what (the robotics team) is doing is they are getting their robots ready for the state competition,” Mr. Joel Hayano, the robotics coach, said.  “And adding all the extra stuff that they didn’t add onto their robots from the first time.”

Most activities include levels of competition in which they must pass or qualify to go onto the next level. Robotics is built the same way. Each team within our robotics team must build a robot that must perform certain tasks in order to move on. In order to perform those certain tasks, the robots have to be programed by the team members.

In preparation for their competition in Bozeman, MT, they had to look back on their last events and adjust to score a higher ranking.

“At our last event, which was in Helena, we had one team that needed to qualify for state and they did that,” Mr. Hayano said. “And then we had another team, 6437, that actually won the event.”

State is the next big event for the robotics team, but the teams are not only competing in Wyoming state. The team 6437 includes Alan Merritt, Joelynn Petrie, Austin Chandler, Devin Ott, Jenna Merritt, Madelyn Horton, Tristin Willett and Ethan Petrie. The other team who qualified was team 10731. The students on this team include Christian Bitzas, Riley Mckeen, David Waite, Jeremy Estes, Isaiah Fauver, Lane Summers and Charles Myers.

In order to go to competitions, students make up the robotics team. The students range from freshmen to seniors and they all compete together. Many students through the years have continued to participate in the program and stay involved as much as they can.

“I like being a part of the robotics team because it is a way to socialize with people with the same interests,” Bitzas said. “The interests being building robots and competing.”

The team spends a large amount of time together and because of this, some tight friendships have been made. They all had to learn how to get along with one another because in order for a robot to work the way you want it to, the people controlling it have to get along as well.

“Our favorite part about being in robotics is working as a team,” Ott and Austin Chandler said. “And having different experiences that bring us closer together.”