With the help of a grant from ARA’s SERVICE Program, South Dakota’s Growing Ideas 4-H Club recently took home a purple ribbon at the South Dakota State Fair for their robotics project.
Throughout the season, members of the student-run robotics club designed and built robots capable of tackling complex obstacle courses. Students got hands-on experience, constructing and programming the robot’s “brain” and navigating the course to complete obstacle course challenges. Each team aimed to earn the highest possible score by successfully overcoming obstacles and achieving specific objectives.
Funding from ARA’s SERVICE Program allowed the club to replace outdated equipment, enhancing the robot builds and the challenge course design. With this support, the team’s hard work paid off at the state fair, where they earned top honors for their course design and performance. The experience offered students valuable lessons in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), while also strengthening their problem-solving skills, teamwork, and self-confidence.
The ARA SERVICE program was developed with ARA’s core value of service in mind. The program empowers employee-owners to serve their communities by supporting STEM education and outreach initiatives and aims to inspire students to pursue STEM education, including through grants from the ARA STEM Community Fund.
