Rob: Well high school sports is going high tech thanks to a rivalry among
robots that's also educating our next generation.
FIRST Robotics is a loud and exhilarating high school sporting event that
for the first time ever, is coming to Oklahoma City.
Our Jessica Betts reports.
Jessica: It's a game that has science, math, and engineering skills all
wrapped up in one.
And for the very first time, Oklahoma will host a regional robotics
competition called FIRST.
Ian McEwan: FIRST is a program to encourage students to get into
science and technology.
It was really set up by Dean Kamen 16 years ago, because his real worry was
that too many kids had heroes that were either pop stars or sports stars,
and the percentage of them that were going to become pop stars and sports stars
was pretty small.
Whereas we as a country were desperately short of engineers.
Jessica: And a high energy event, like this, is a proven way of getting kids
interested.
McEwan: This year we'll have 1500 teams.
We'll have about 30,000 high school students.
Jessica: Oklahoma is included in the list of 41 regional competitions to
be held throughout the nation.
This is Dana Fjare's third year competing.
And she couldn't be happier to compete in her home state.
Dana Fjare: We won't have to drive all the way to Texas, and it's going to
be sort of a state pride thing, and I'm really excited to participate in
our own state's regional.
Jessica: Speaker of the House, Lance Cargill, says this competition will send
a strong message to the world.
Speaker Lance Cargill: That Oklahoma is embracing the knowledge based
economy, the 21st century economy, that's going to be based increasingly on
technology and innovation and entrepreneurship.
And not only are we going to be a part of that,
we want to be a leader in that.
Jessica: Burns Hargis, the vice chairman of the Bank of Oklahoma.
Burns Hargis: We know the next 100 years have to be about creativity; and
heaven knows, one of the most important areas of that
is in science and technology.
Landing this regional in Oklahoma City is an incredible coup for us.
Jessica: And veteran robotics teams are doing all they can to attract
new high school teams to the competition.
Alec Carson: And since we finally got an Oklahoma regional, we're definitely
going to put a lot of effort behind that to keep
it going and build more teams.
Jessica: Making this robotics competition a real first for Oklahoma.