• VIP Cats of the First Lego League

HASLETT - Roughly eight years ago, Haslett elementary schooler Nik Buchholz was sent home from school with a flyer regarding lego robotics. Showing it to his dad, they decided to attend the meeting. As it would turn out, the Buchholz' wound up being founding members of the Haslett Robotics Club.

The Haslett Robotics Club takes students 8 to 18, currently spread across twelve teams and three levels of advancement. The First Lego League, which takes ages 8 to 14, uses Lego-based technology. Those in the Lego League must assemble prefabricated kits and program them to perform multi-step tasks.

The highest level is VEX Robotics, which takes age 14 to 18, which uses technology more akin to Erector or Meccano, and thus requires more advanced engineering. The goal of the VEX teams is to build a robot that can compete in a basketball-like game. There is also an intermediate level between Lego and VEX, using more advanced prefabricated kits than Lego but with similar goals to VEX.

The Haslett Robotics Club is one of the most successful clubs in the state, and while it has competed with teams from other countries, last year's state finals boiled down to two Haslett teams. As of writing the robotics season has just begun, yet the club is overall very optimistic of their coming performance.