Narooma High School robotics team must raise $60000 in 3 weeks

On March 11-12, 37 teams from across Australia, Vietnam, Taiwan and Singapore competed in the Southern Cross regional qualifying competition in Wollongong.

Narooma High School principal Fiona Jackson said only three teams qualified to go through to the world championships.

Schools competed alongside universities including UTS, University of Sydney and Macquarie, home to Australia's first robotics team.

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Each year teams have just eight weeks to build a robot capable of doing the tasks required during the two-and-a-half-minute game.

The first 15 seconds is totally automated meaning robots must be programmed to perform tasks without any human intervention.

Narooma High School's robotics team comprises Year 12 students Kye Potter, Linc McLeod-Scott, Matthew Brookes and Harrison McKee and Year 10's Harmony Cannon.

For the final round of the regional qualifier, first-placed Barker College and second-placed Pymble Ladies' College chose Narooma to form their three-team alliance.

Harrison said 20 other teams did not get selected for the final round.

Each of the two prestigious Sydney colleges have at least 50 in their team and have dedicated buildings and a practice field.

"We have five people and the only space dedicated to us is a cupboard for storage," Harrison said.

Gayle Allison, who along with Christina Potts, mentors the team, said the Sydney colleges may have chosen Narooma because their robot, although pretty basic compared with many others, was very dependable and Narooma has a built a reputation for skilful defence.

"They had a very clear goal to build a robot that could mount a platform and balance itself in automatic mode.

"They achieved that in the final round" which earned them bonus points to win the competition.

"We hope to be flying out in three weeks," Ms Allison said on March 24, "so only have five weeks to prepare for an international trip."

The Department of Education has given permission for them to go to Houston so now the school needs to raise funds.

The school is trying several ways to raise the funds including a gofundme campaign.

The FIRST Robotic Competition is about much more than robotics as judges speak to the teams about design and teamwork.

"It will be life-changing to go to another country," Harrison said.

"Students learn important life skills in technology, how to navigate problems and overcome challenges."

In other good news, Linc McLeod-Scott won a scholarship to university to carry on the vision of the competition's founder, Mike Heimlich, of robotics and gracious professionalism.

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