ROBOTS, TEAMS DUELED SATURDAY IN PHOENIXVILLE – Student teams from the Phoenixville Area, Owen J. Roberts, and Spring-Ford Area high schools, as well as from the Pickering campus of Technical College High School and The Perkiomen School in Green Lane, were among 36 different registered entries competing Saturday (Feb. 23, 2013) from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. during the East Central Pennsylvania Regional Qualifying Tournament of the Pennsylvania FIRST Tech Challenge, held in Phoenixville’s gym. FIRST Tech Challenge is a robotics program for middle and high school students that emphasizes hands-on experiences in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. All teams operated robots they designed and built to earn points by picking up and placing plastic rings onto a rack of pegs. One of the robots, above, proudly sported a U.S. Air Force decal, and was promptly photographed by the staff of the Air Force Recruiting Station, 204 Shoemaker Rd., Pottstown. Recruiters also brought in a jet engine on a wheeled cart, below, that students could inspect when the robots weren’t running through their paces.

Photos from the Air Force Recruiting Station, Pottstown, via Facebook