Mirror staff reports:

Federal Way High School’s RoboEagles earned a berth to the FIRST Robotics 2013 Championship, slated for April 24-27 in St. Louis.

FIRST Robotics is dubbed a “sport of the mind” because it combines the competition aspect of sports with the disciplines of science and technology. The goal is to foster the next generation of engineers and innovators by having them dream, design and build a robot.

As a rookie team, the RoboEagles will compete at the St. Louis championship against thousands of students from around the world.

Throughout the six-week build period in January and February, the Federal Way students applied the skills and concepts they learned in the classroom to build a robot that shoots discs into goals.

At the Seattle FIRST Robotics Regional Competition on March 30, the Federal Way team earned the Highest Rookie Seed and Regional Finalist honors with a fifth-place overall finish. Teams from Decatur and Thomas Jefferson high schools also competed at regionals.

Organizers of FIRST Robotics say that high school students who participate in the project are 50 percent more likely to go to college and twice as likely to major in science or engineering.

“Let’s inspire these kids to be big thinkers the way Shaquille O’Neal inspired them to spend dozens of hours a week bouncing a ball,” said founder Dean Kamen in a 2011 promotional video. “The only difference between this sport and all the others is every kid on our teams can turn pro. There’s a job out there for every one of these kids.”

Learn more

To learn more about FIRST Robotics in Washington, visit www.firstwa.org.