By Rebekah Hall
U of A System Division of Agriculture

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.

SEACOWS RECOGNIZED — In addition to placing 12th among 64 teams in the Tech Challenge Program at the FIRST Championship, the Saline County 4-H SeaCow Robotics senior team was also selected for the Judges' Award, which recognizes one special team for their efforts. (Division of Agriculture photo.)

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.

By Rebekah Hall
U of A System Division of Agriculture

LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas 4-H members keep their hands and minds busy with a variety of science projects, part of the youth development program’s emphasis on STEM education. One such project found Saline County 4-H SeaCow Robotics Club members putting together a Voice It© assistive technology device at Easterseals in Little Rock.

HELPING HANDS — Katie West, Saline County extension 4-H agent, and Tamara Wald, parent volunteer for the SeaCow Robotics Club, look on as Wald's sons Issac and Luke get started with the video instruction portion of the Voice It© assembly. (Division of Agriculture photo.)

Clad in their signature black and white checkerboard pants, SeaCow Robotics Club members Kyri Collins, Abby Wald, Issac Wald, Luke Wald and Sarah Wald, 4-H parent Brandon Collins, and coaches Mike Katsen, Stacy Statler and Tamara Wald gathered with Easterseals Arkansas staff to construct the device on April 5.

“Through our partnership with the SeaCow Robotics Club, we hope to shed light on an exciting opportunity for Arkansas school districts to collaborate with their Robotics, East, or STEM programs in order to assemble assistive technology devices,” said Katelynn Estes, doctor of occupational therapy and assistive technology specialist for Easterseals Arkansas Outreach Program and Technology Services. “This provides educational benefits for both the students receiving the device and for the students assembling the device.”

Estes said the Voice It© device reads RFID, or radio frequency identification, tags. These tags can be placed within everyday objects, tactile symbols, picture cards and more. When the Voice It© scans the tag, it speaks a word or phrase out loud using a prerecorded voice.

“For example, if a user has a tactile symbol representing the word ‘more’ with an RFID card installed, they can use the Voice It© in combination with the tactile symbol to speak the word ‘more,’” Estes said. “The Voice It© can also help individuals with low vision identify common objects around their home, school or work environment, such as medicine bottles.”

Tamara Wald, an occupational therapist and parent volunteer, said she was inspired to get involved after attending a course at Easterseals about helping children with multiple disabilities access assistive technology.

“I thought, ‘Why can’t our robotics club help them produce this assistive technology to get it in the hands of more children?’” Tamara said. “They told us there’s not enough of this technology to go around, especially when it comes to some of the 3-D printed items. We’re learning about 3-D printing as a club, so why not try to partner together? What more practical need is there than helping children?”

Some assembly required

Estes said that the assembled Voice It© device, made by the company VolkSwitch, is not available for purchase. However, the device’s design is available for free under a Creative Commons License. Estes said she 3-D printed many parts for the device, including the casing, which helped save on cost, as did the 4-H members’ assembly.

To assemble the device, 4-H members worked on its electrical circuitry, wired it for audio output, installed its battery, configured the device’s software and more.

“The student volunteers also installed feet on the device, verified it was working as expected and ‘wrote’ RFID tags for our Project Core Symbols,” Estes said.

The Project Core Symbols are a set of 3-D, tactile symbols that represent the 36 words in the Universal Core vocabulary, created by The Center for Literacy and Disability Studies and also licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Estes said that thanks to the collaboration between the SeaCow Robotics Club and Easterseals Outreach Program and Technology Services, the Voice It© device will be available for public school districts in Arkansas to checkout, giving students an opportunity to try out the device before schools invest in purchasing one.

“Through Outreach, we are able to assist public schools and coach teams through a process where they identify features of technology that a particular student requires,” Estes said. “We point them towards specific devices that match the student’s needs, and then the schools may borrow the device in order to ensure data supports the use of the assistive technology. Eventually, they will need to acquire the technology permanently for that student if the trial is successful.”

‘Something for everyone’ in 4-H

Katie West, Saline County extension 4-H agent, said community service projects like this partnership with Easterseals are an important part of 4-H programming.

“Community service brings the children in and makes them feel like a part of that community,” West said. “This helps them become the citizens we need them to be later on, and they’re more likely to lead and figure out what problems they want to address when they’re older.”

Science, technology, engineering and math — or STEM — education is one of the three mission mandates that all Arkansas 4-H project work falls within, West said.

“We have natural resources, wildlife, forestry, electronics — there’s a wide range of programs and activities that children can do,” she said. “This group does robotics, so they’re actually learning technology and coding as well as engineering and how to get things to work.”

Wald said her children have enjoyed the variety of activities and opportunities available in their local 4-H club.

“We are interested in so many things in my family,” Wald said. “Not only does my family participate in the robotics program, but we are also part of a 4-H science club in Bryant, which is led by our wonderful teacher Kristin Higgins, who works in the state extension office. I think 4-H has really opened doors for my children and broadened their horizons to different topics.”

In just one day, West said her 4-H members were involved in three different competitions: the SeaPerch Challenge, which is an underwater robotics competition, a shooting sports competition, and the 4-H Ross Photography Contest.

“All of these were very different, and so are the children who were interested in these competitions,” West said. “Because of that variety, as they grow, they’re able to figure out what might be their best subject. They can get a lot of scholarships and learn new things as they go.

“They won’t start off knowing exactly what they want to be when they grow up, but with 4-H, they can try everything out, see what works and what doesn’t, and know more about what they are good at by the time they’re an adult,” West said.

Mention of product names does not imply endorsement by the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

For more information about Arkansas 4-H, visit 4h.uada.edu or contact your county 4-H agent at uaex.uada.edu/counties/.

Arkansas 4-H robotics team places 12th at international 2025 FIRST Championship

Saline County 4-H Robotics Club partners with Easterseals Arkansas to construct assistive technology device