If the inner workings of various household appliances or outdoor machinery interests you, or you have a child who you’re sure would love to learn about robots and how they’re made, than this Dodge County Fair event is for you. The Hartford Union High School Robotics Team will host a robotics demonstration during the Dodge County Fair on Thursday, Aug. 17, at 11 a.m. in the grandstand, for fair goers of all ages.

“At the fair, we’re going to have a one-hour presentation talking about the organization and what we do as a team,” commented Maddy Jacobi, high school sophomore and robotics club public relations leader. “We will have the robot from the last year’s competition and will show how it’s assembled and some of the pieces that make up the robot. Our driver will drive it around and demonstrate what it does, like climbing a rope and placing gears on a peg.”

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The Hartford robotics team includes students in grades 9-12, and the group participates in competitions through FIRST Robotics. “FIRST was founded in 1989 and means For Inspiration Recognition of Science and Technology.”

“The competition includes four different levels, and students have six weeks to build a robot following rules set forth for that particular year,” noted Jacobi. “Our team members work with other teams as allies, and if you win, you can go to nationals.”

“Students in the robotics club usually want to pursue some sort of technology or STEM-related field (science, technology, engineering, and math), but everyone is welcome,” commented Jacobi. “We have 21 members, and we’re working to get more — male or female. Our school has always been a STEM-heavy program. Our mentors are from a technology or STEM field, too. Our head mentor is our physics teacher at the high school, and our other head mentor works for Triton Trailers as an engineer.”

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“I think it helps to be in something like this program, because it’s a family-type group, you make a lot of good friends, you do better in your education, it makes us better at our jobs, and we compete better when applying to colleges for technology-related majors. It’s a very good experience.”

The robotics club will be demonstrating from 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. on Aug. 17, with a little set up at the beginning. Join them in the grandstand to see a real robot at work.

The Dodge County Fair is scheduled for Aug. 16-20, 2017.

Written by Dori Lichty — farm wife, 4-H Mom, and full-time communicator