The Oklahoma County 4-H Robotics team is an organization that competes in two separate robot competitions: BEST and FIRST.

The BEST (Boosting Engineering Science and Technology) robot competition occurs during the Fall season and typically has its kickoff around Labor Day. In a nutshell: The BEST kickoff presents a different challenge every year and teams have a short time period to analyze, design, and build a robot to best meet the challenge. All teams start out with the same kit of parts and must use only these parts to build the robot. There is a lot more to a BEST competition, but suffice it to say, the students experience a challenge that requires them to work with very limited resources.

The BEST competition is for junior high and high school students. Our team requires dues of $100 per family per competition season. We do not want these dues to be a burden to a family and scholarships are available for those that speak privately to a coach. We will also waive the dues if the family acquires a sponsor(s) that will donate $500 toward the team. The $100 dues also includes one T-shirt. For the 2nd, 3rd, etc children in the family, they are only required to purchase a T-shirt.

The BEST competition season is coached by Brian Feller as head coach. Since we are a 4-H team, Brian is required to find other adult sponsors to assist him in this task. The adults are very important to the team. If you are an adult parent or interested adult please consider becomeing a 4-H volunteer to help monitor and mentor these students. All 4-H volunteers are required by 4-H to go thru a screening process.

One of the most difficut resources to manage is time. There is only so much time that the team has to put together a robot to meet the challenge (typically 6-8 weeks before the competition). Because of this constraint, the team meets 4 times a week: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday evenings and Saturday afternoons. We understand that not evey student will not be able to make every meeting, but they are missing out on the experience if they miss too many meetings.

We are a 4-H team and all students that want to be on the team must also be member of Oklahoma COunty 4-H. It is possible for students that live outside of Oklahoma County to be on our team, they just need to fill out some extra paperwork with the Oklahoma County 4-H office. We take students that are home-schooled, or attend public or private schools.

The FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) robot competition occurs during the Spring season and typically has its kickoff the first Saturday after New Years day. In a nutshell: The FIRST kickoff presents a different game every year and teams have a short time period to analyze, design, and build a robot to play the game. All teams are given a kit of parts, but they are allowed to purchase items (within constraints) to build the robot. A FIRST robot can end up looking a lot different than the other FIRST robots it is competing against. A team can end up spending a lot of money on their robot, that is why the team must seek corporate sponsorship to assist them in their goal to build the best robot they can to play the game. There is a lot more to it, but suffice it to say, the students experience a challenge that requires them to build a robot within the budget constraints based upon their marketing skill to the corporatations that sponsor them.

There are many similarities between the BEST season and the FIRST season of competitive robotics, but tehre are differences. Read on...

The FIRST competition is for high school students, however, our team has been known to make exceptiosn for our team only. The students that we take that are younger than high school age must meet and agree to our guidelines..

Like during the BEST season, The FIRST team requires dues of $100 per family per competition season. We do not want these dues to be a burden to a family and scholarships are available for those that speak privately to a coach. We will also waive the dues if the family acquires a sponsor(s) that will donate $500 toward the team. The $100 dues also includes one T-shirt. For the 2nd, 3rd, etc children in the family, they are only required to purchase a T-shirt.

The FIRST competition season is coached by Larry McWilliams as head coach. Since we are a 4-H team, Larry is required to find other adult sponsors to assist him in this task. The adults are very important to the team. If you are an adult parent or interested adult please consider becomeing a 4-H volunteer to help monitor and mentor these students. All 4-H volunteers are required by 4-H to go thru a screening process.

One of the most difficut resources to manage is time. There is only so much time that the team has to put together a robot to meet the challenge (typically 6-8 weeks before the first competition). Because of this constraint, the team meets 4 times a week: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday evenings and Saturday afternoons. We understand that not evey student will not be able to make every meeting, but they are missing out on the experience if they miss too many meetings.

We are a 4-H team and all students that want to be on the team must also be member of Oklahoma COunty 4-H. It is possible for students that live outside of Oklahoma County to be on our team, they just need to fill out some extra paperwork with the Oklahoma County 4-H office. We take students that are home-schooled, or attend public or private schools.

More faq topics are coming, check back often.

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