• Kinetic’s $5,000 Gift helps STEM-studying girls, boys battle it out at FIRST Lego League Regional, Semi-Area showdowns
• Tivy High School’s Cobalt Chaos and Gilded Gears battle in San Antonio
• Tally Elementary’s Tallybots advance to Regionals, Semis

High-speed fiber broadband provider Kinetic is sponsoring tech-minded girls and boys in fourth through 12th grades participating in intense, sports-like robotics competitions.

The $5,000 sponsorship of the Kerrville (Texas) Robotics Alliance helps the students show off their robotic chops in a series of contests that leads to the state championship in Belton, Texas, March 22, and the international 2024 FIRST Championship in Houston April 17 - 20.

After placing well at January tournaments in Comfort, Texas, two teams from Tivy High School and one from Tally Elementary, both in Kerrville, are to move on to next-level tournaments in San Antonio Saturday, Feb. 10.

Tivy High’s Cobalt Chaos and Gilded Gears teams are to compete in the FIRST Semi-Area Championship at San Antonio’s TMI Episcopal high school, 20955 W. Tejas Trail, from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Besides placing well at the January tournament, Gilded Gears team members also earned the Innovate Award for having “the ingenuity, creativity and inventiveness to make their designs come to life.”

Tally Elementary’s Tallybots team is to compete in the Central Texas FIRST Lego League Challenge Regional Tournament at San Antonio’s School of Science and Technology, 4410 David Edwards Drive, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Kinetic state operations President Danny Ferguson said: “At Kinetic, we take pride in supporting the next generation of innovators and problem solvers. Sponsoring these exceptional teams aligns with our commitment to empowering students to inspire big ideas, bold action and creativity through technology and engineering.”

The competitions bring together scores of teams that compete head-to-head designing, building and programming Lego Education robots to complete sophisticated tasks during competitive 150-second heats.

Student pit crews make superfast last-minute repairs and mechanical adjustments during the timed events. Judges officiate and determine the winners.

The robotic tasks that the daring students devise seek to solve a theme-related problem. This year’s theme, “Masterpiece,” focuses on expanding STEM skills to become STEAM skills to advance the arts and design.

“STEM” stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. “STEAM” adds “arts” to the acronym. “FIRST” stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.”

The Kerrville Robotics Alliance builds STEM, STEAM, teamwork and leadership skills through extracurricular activities for students in Texas Hill Country. The alliance supports teams in the Kerrville and Ingram independent school districts, as well as local home-schooled students.

“All of us at the Kerrville Robotics Alliance are grateful to Kinetic for its generous sponsorship of our teams,” alliance board member Marcus Goodyear said. “We absolutely could not grow this program without Kinetic’s support to help our students to explore and excel in robotics. It’s having a lasting impact on our students.”

“Also, I want to say that I have Kinetic fiber in my home. It’s fantastic,” he added.

About Kinetic

Kinetic by Windstream is a business unit of Windstream Holdings, a privately held communications and software company. Kinetic provides premium broadband, entertainment and security services through an enhanced fiber network to consumers and businesses primarily in rural areas in 18 states. The company also offers managed communications services, including SD-WAN and UCaaS, and high-capacity bandwidth and transport services to businesses across the U.S. Additional information is available at GoKinetic.com.

Category: Kinetic

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