With a whistle and a whirl, Fidchell, a robot, will use its wheels and arm to place a gear and climb a rope to compete March 23–26 at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.

This is the first year a team of West Delaware students, named the Iron Hawks, will participate in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition.

Robotics competitions are the ultimate sport of the mind. With the help of a joystick, a team of five students will collaborate and align with other schools for points. Some of the teams competing include schools from Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and China.

Over 20 students are involved in building, designing, marketing, programming and even managing the team’s social media accounts with the help of teachers Ben Moser and Chad Sellers.

Funded by the STEM Scale-Up Grant from the Governor’s Advisory Council, students started with a kit and guidelines to build a basic robot. Each year contestants participate in  a different game.

“We don’t know what the game is or (what the) tasks are until Jan. 7,” Moser said. “We have six weeks to design, build, program and test the robot.”

Tyler Salow (10), a member of the team, said, “We talked to some other schools, including Linn-Mar, and watched some YouTube videos to give us some ideas on how we should go about building and competing with a robot.”

Hannah Wenger (10) and Nolan Monaghan (11) are in charge of the business side with a team of about twenty other students.

“We are mostly the fundraising side of the team,” Monaghan said. “We make sure the robot follows the safety precautions.”

During practices, engineers from Hendersons and a Rockwell intern from Iowa State University came and helped with the robot.

During competition time, four students and one coach are allowed in the competition area. “I envision myself being in the pit area where we might have to make alterations or problem solve any issues that might arise throughout the competition,” Moser said.  

“We were really lucky to have a great group of students that undertook this endeavor this year,” Moser said. “It wasn’t easy, but they worked tremendously hard over the six weeks, and we feel confident we have a robot that will be able to complete a couple of the tasks of the game.”