This is the third time the team has hosted a competition, program coach Amanda Gibbons said, adding about 40 teams from Michigan are expected to take part.

Kingsford hosted the final in-person Upper Peninsula tournament two years ago just before the state was shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year they only competed virtually.

Kingsford has one of the largest FIRST Robotics programs in the country and is among the few teams in the state with more than one high school robot, Gibbons said. The Kingsford teams that compete are TheROK and the Pebbles-Robotics of Kingsford.

There are about 40 members on the middle school and high school teams. Gibbons said they don’t limit the number of members, but they try to make sure they can service as many student as possible. “If the numbers get too large, we just add another robot,” she said.

THE KINGSFORD SCHOOLS robotics team TheROK recently competed at an event in Escanaba. Shown with the team's robot are student Alexander Erickson and TheROK team coach Brian Olson. (Submitted photo)

The robots compete several times during events, earning points for how well they complete tasks against other robots, in hopes of earning a spot in the final rounds. The tasks vary but this year they include throwing a ball through a hoop and climbing.

Kingsford has offered robotics for five years, in early kindergarten through 12th grade the entire time.

“Technically every student of Breitung Township Schools sees FIRST Robotics programming at some point in their career,” Gibbons said.

Gibbons herself got involved when she began working with her son in Lego Robotics and realized it was expensive. She found state grants available for it.

Students in the club perform different roles: art, business, finance, coding, mechanical builds and computer-aided design. They also have students who are specialists, and tools and fasteners.

The robots are assembled from scratch, using motors and metal.

“I don’t think much has changed since I’ve been involved,” Gibbons said. “I think that the students really shine every year and that doesn’t really change based on year-to-year or challenge-to-challenge. It’s always about what a new crop of students are going to do to solve a problem and what resources they’re going to use to do that.”

“We are very proud to be awarded this competition on a yearly basis,” she said. “It shows that our school has excellent facilities, excellent management and the ability to execute such a large task.”