Arkansas 4-H robotics team places 12th at international 2025 FIRST Championship
By Rebekah Hall
U of A System Division of Agriculture
April 25, 2025
Fast Facts:
- Saline County 4-H SeaCow Robotics team placed 12th among 64 teams in division, also won Judges’ Award
- Teams from more than 20 different countries competed at tournament
- SeaCow Robotics emphasizes STEM learning, making robotics accessible
(1,121 words)
(Newsrooms: With photos; style of LEGO and Lego are CQ)
HOUSTON — From among the thousands of students from more than 20 countries competing in the 2025 FIRST — For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology — Championship, the Saline County 4-H SeaCow Robotics Club earned a special recognition from the judges.
The senior Arkansas 4-H team placed 12th among 64 teams in the competition’s Tech Challenge Program, held April 16-19 at Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center. FIRST is a nonprofit with team-based robotics programs for ages 4-18.
But the SeaCows also took home a more heartfelt honor — the Judges’ Award — which is given to a team that “judges strongly felt should be recognized,” said Stacy Statler, SeaCow Robotics coach.
“Receiving the Judges’ Award means we were overall in the running for lots of other awards, but we were just eked out,” Statler said. “The reward of getting to go to the world competition was all we were looking for, so the fact that we got recognized was pretty special.”
The FIRST Tech Challenge Program includes students in grades seven through 12. In September 2024, FIRST launched INTO THE DEEP, the deep sea exploration themed game for the competition season. Teams then designed, built and programmed their robots to score points in the game and competed in qualifying competitions to earn their spot at the April championships.
A game of research
In the game, two teams are partnered together to compete against another set of teams. Shortly before gameplay begins, a team is given a schedule of their pairings, and then they coordinate with their partner team to “figure out how the two of you can best score against the other two,” Statler said.
“You have to have done a lot of research about what everybody’s robot can do, and how consistent they are,” Statler said. “It’s not battle bots, where everybody is on the floor trying to hit each other. It’s a very specific task that you’re trying to achieve.”
The SeaCow Juniors team also competed in Houston in the FIRST LEGO League Challenge Program which includes students ages 9-16. LEGO League teams also had to qualify for the world championship at previous competitions. Teams built and programmed robots made of Legos to navigate the missions of the SUBMERGED game.
“The games are different every year, with new engineering challenges, new fields and new ways to score points,” Statler said. “You’re going to build a new robot every year. That’s the fun of it. It never gets boring, and nobody ever finishes learning, including the coaches. The games are hard, no matter what level you’re at.”
In addition to a team’s performance in the game, each team gave a 10-minute presentation to a panel of judges and shared their portfolio, which documents a team’s progress and challenges during their competition season. Team members also answered questions from the judges.
“Sink, swim, do it again.”
Statler said a critical factor for the judges is how a team learns from its mistakes.
“We have our motto: Sink, swim, do it again,” Statler said. “If you’re a good coach, what you want to do is teach these kids how to fail. Teach these kids how to come up with an idea, build it, test it, have it be totally wrong, and come up with a new idea and start all over again. It’s the iterations of those failures that teach them to put themselves out there.
“When kids are really young and new at this, we have to teach them to talk about their failures,” she said. “When the judges say, ‘Tell us about something you learned,’ what they’re asking you is, ‘Tell us something that went wrong and how you learned from that.’ It’s so important for them to understand. Don’t hide the failures — be proud of the failures. Show all the broken parts, because those are the steps to good engineering.”
Instilling a passion for STEM
The current SeaCow Robotics Club members began working together in September of 2022, when Statler and Mike Kasten, SeaCow Robotics coach and Statler’s husband, held an interest meeting for Saline County 4-H members. Since then, Statler said the students’ skills and confidence have greatly improved.
“The teams always have a learning curve,” Statler said. “When you start a new team, you’ve got to allow for those years. I think of it just like a perennial garden, where you plant it and then that first year they sleep, and the second year they creep, and then the third year they leap. We’re teaching and we’re pushing, but it always takes until at least that third year until the kids really start believing that they can.”
Nicole Nichols, Saline County extension agent for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, also said she has seen impressive growth among the group, with whom she traveled to the world championship.
“A lot of the kiddos, when they first started a couple of years ago, trying to get them to talk about anything was painful,” Nichols said. “And now they’re the ones who are answering questions from the judges and doing community outreach to teach people about their robots. I like seeing them growing up, and their confidence to go out and be the center of attention and have good attitudes about it.”
Making robotics accessible
At the FIRST Championship and at previous qualifying competitions, three to four members steer the robot through the game. But behind the scenes, other teammates have written code and programmed the robot, designed the team’s uniforms, helped promote the team on social media and created manatee crafts to share with judges and fellow competitors. Within what Statler calls the “SeaCow Robotics family,” there’s a role for everyone.
“Our model is to make robotics accessible, so we can bring them in with whatever talent they think they bring to the table,” Statler said. “And then once we earn their trust, we can figure out how to show them that STEM relates to that. There’s a path for them, sometimes they just don’t see it yet.”
Statler said this same attitude is at the heart of the FIRST Competition organization.
“It’s right there in the rule book,” she said. “You need to build a robot, follow the engineering process, create a brand, market the brand, and be able to go out and speak publicly about the robot. The entire FIRST process for the competition is set up to reward the students that do the entire thing, because that’s what it’s going to take to have a successful career or business. You have to recognize all of it.”
To learn more about the Saline County 4-H SeaCow Robotics Club, contact Statler at seacowrobotics@gmail.com or Katie West, Saline County extension 4-H agent for the Division of Agriculture, at kwest@uada.edu.
To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on X and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on X at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on X at @AgInArk.
About the Division of Agriculture
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s mission is to strengthen agriculture, communities, and families by connecting trusted research to the adoption of best practices. Through the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service, the Division of Agriculture conducts research and extension work within the nation’s historic land grant education system.
The Division of Agriculture is one of 20 entities within the University of Arkansas System. It has offices in all 75 counties in Arkansas and faculty on three campuses.
Pursuant to 7 CFR § 15.3, the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension and Research programs and services (including employment) without regard to race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, sexual preference, pregnancy or any other legally protected status, and is an equal opportunity institution.
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Media Contact:
Rebekah Hall
rkhall@uada.edu
@RKHall_
501-671-2061