Arla Shephard Bull

Mason County Life

It’s been a whirlwind year for the Shelton High School robotics team, Aldernating Current.

For the first time in the school’s history, the robotics team advanced all the way to the FIRST Robotics Competition World Championship in Houston this past April, raising nearly $20,000 in a week and a half to go on the unique trip.

The team competed at the local level in FIRST Washington events in Mount Vernon and Auburn earlier this school year, but it was the first time they advanced to the Pacific Northwest District Championship in Cheney, let alone qualified for the world championship.

“We were extremely shocked,” recalled sophomore Tristin Newby, 16, of the moment the team found out they’d qualified to go to Houston. “Everyone kind of just exploded with excitement. There was a point where I was crying from happiness. I still tear up just thinking about it.”

The nonprofit FIRST, or For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, develops STEM curriculum for students in all grade levels, and at the high school level, the robotics competition challenges students to work together to build and use robots for specific tests.

Since January, Aldernating Current team members have worked hard for nearly five hours a day after school, four days a week, to build and perfect a robot that could perform three goals presented at each of the year’s competitions.

This year’s theme was“First Steamworks,” evoking a steampunk aesthetic.

The robot’s first goal was to navigate a field full of 5-inch wiffle balls, collect them and shoot them into a receptacle, or “boiler,” 6 feet off the ground.

Then, the robot needed to be able to catch or pick up 2-inch-thick “gears,” bring them back to the team’s side of the field and hang the gears on pegs.

Finally, in the last 30 seconds of each competition, the robot needed to be able to climb a rope.

Newby credits the team’s simple design for the robot with taking them all the way to Houston.

“Last year, the team placed basically dead last at the (local) competitions,” he said. “We overcomplicated our design. This year, we made a robot that was more simple and more durable, so it was less likely to break down.”

Newby was introduced to FIRST in fifth grade by a friend who persuaded him to join the FIRST Lego League for fourth- through eighth-grade students.

“One of my friends was in it and he dragged me into it, but I am so glad he did,” he said. “I like building things and I also like coding.”

As the driver of the Aldernating Current team, Newby sits behind the glass wall during competitions and ensures that the robot moves where it needs to move and completes its tasks.

“I like being the driver because it’s like I’m playing a video game, but in real life, and I love video games,” he said.

Senior Jacob Hunter, 17, joined the team for the first time this year and said he has learned a tremendous amount about engineering.

“When I joined robotics, all I knew how to do was to code, I knew nothing about wiring or anything like that,” he said. “I’ve learned a lot of stuff I didn’t know. Now I can basically take apart that entire robot and put it back together.”

The team returned from Eastern Washington University, where the Pacific Northwest District Championship was held, on April 8 with only 11 days to raise the $28,000 they learned they needed to go to the world championship.

They approached local businesses, they held a car wash and they advertised through Facebook, and in a matter of days were able to raise $19,000.

The Shelton School District paid the remaining amount needed for them to go, said team captain Jaeden Hansen, 17, a senior.

“There was a little bit of doubt that we could do it, but as a couple days went by, it wasn’t as surprising,” Hansen said. “Without the help of the community, we wouldn’t have had the opportunity to learn what we needed to work on so we can strive forward for years to come.”

Now in their off-season, the team is planning more fundraisers to support the team next school year, including two car washes at Our Community Credit Union in Shelton this summer, Aug. 5 and 12 at the credit union’s uptown location on Olympic Highway North.

“We just want to thank everyone for their endless support,” said sophomore Carolynn Clarey, 16. “We wouldn’t have been able to do this without the moral and financial support. We wouldn’t be a team without them.”