4H Extension Offering Robotics Team

North Platte, Ne - The Lincoln, Logan, McPherson County Extension Office recently announced the formation of a "First Lego Robotics League". According to Extension Educator Caitlyn Jacobson, the league programs and codes robots to go through obsicle courses. Jacobson said "theres a team of young people that programs and codes a robot to go through an obstacle course. Every year the state has a competition in Lincoln along with competitions around the state; but there's a different obstacle every year and you just kinda work towards as a team figuring out how to program your robot to successfully go through this obstacle course."

Nick Newland, a local 12 year old recently signed up for the team joined Jacobson in the Eagle Media Studio to talk about the new program, Nick says, "I really like doing Legos and my mom told me about 4-H and that they have a robotics class and I was really excited because I'm really into coding and doing robotics and Legos and she told me that was for Legos too, and I was really excited when she said she could sign up."

Many think 4H is all about arts, crafts and animals, but according to Jacobson, "our main wheel-house is about finding out what our youth are interested in and how we can essentially get them to where we want them to go, and to grow in a positive way and be able to thrive in today's world. You know there's a whole lot of jobs in that realm that haven't even been invented yet and this is a great way for you to get their toes in and be prepared when they step out post high school when they leave and they go to college or whatever they're gonna do post high school. Then they have that experience a little little bit already so they're just that much more prepared to take whatever life throws at them. A lot of people pointed out that technology is incorporated into any job that you were going into and that's really kind of where our focus is,  just looking at the big picture and seeing how we can help prepare our youth for right now that will help them in their future". 

For more information, reach out to Caitlyn Jacobson at caitlyn.jacobson@unl.edu