January 5, 2011: Hundreds of techno-savvy students and their mentors will be converging in Halton region this weekend to show off their engineering, technical and creative skills as they begin their quest for robotic glory. 

The Halton District School Board-supported Pathways program is hosting the popular FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology) Robotics Kick-off event at the New Street Education Centre (3250 New Street,~Burlington) on Saturday, January 8, 2011 from 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. The Board has six FIRST robotics teams competing: Burlington Central, Oakville Trafalgar, White Oaks, M.M. Robinson, Aldershot and Milton District high schools. Each team has corporate sponsorship and community mentorship. 

The FIRST Robotics Competition challenges teams of high school students worldwide (and their engineering mentors) to solve a common problem in a six-week timeframe using a standard "kit of parts" and a common set of rules. Teams build robots from the parts to play a game in which the objective is to score points by completing tasks such as shooting balls, stacking boxes, climbing over obstacles or hanging from bars. On Saturday, teams will be given this year’s FIRST Robotics challenge to build a highly technological and sophisticated robot from scratch that will be able to complete the task.

Also, a series of speakers and activities are scheduled for Saturday including hooking into a NASA satellite feed, in which students at New Street Education Centre will be connected with around 130,000 students from around the world, who are taking part in their own robotic kick-off events.

The FIRST Robotics Kick-off event culminates with regional and international competitions scheduled to be held in the spring of 2011.


For additional information, contact:
      Dave Lewis, Coordinator
      Pathways, Guidance and Cooperative Education
      New Street Education Centre
      905-631-6120, ext. 424; lewisd@hdsb.ca