Peshtigo High School students prepare for SkillsUSA state competition

PESHTIGO – After winning local and regional SkillsUSA competitions, freshmen Jace Hubert and Connor Van Gorder are preparing for the SkillsUSA Wisconsin State Leadership and Skills Conference.

Held in Madison on April 1 and 2, the event will include over 1,750 middle, high school and college/post-secondary students competing in 75 different groups.
Hubert and Van Gorder are partners in the Robotics: Urban Search in Rescue category.

Within this category the two students have constructed robots that have competed in five skill challenge areas: arm mechanism, navigation, drive chassis, camera point-of-view and communication and collaboration.

Career and Technical Education teacher Mike Paquette serves as the advisor of SkillsUSA and has been overseeing Hubert and Van Gorder since they joined in middle school.

Paquette explained that when it comes to building robots “We have several robotics kits in-house, and if they want to build something outside of those kits then we buy the supplies.”

At the middle school level Hubert and Van Gorder used a kit that came with all of the necessary pieces and connected together like a LEGO kit, with minor design adjustments available.

Now that the students are competing at a higher level, they have more freedom.

Hubert and Van Gorder selected specific pieces for the two robots they built, which Paquette explained that the two “built a frame out of extruded aluminum and bolted a whole bunch of parts onto it.”

As a part of their competitions they create an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) robot that must locate, neutralize and dispose of a simulated explosive material.

When building a robot, Van Gorder said it should be “Fast, have good precision and be able to pick up ordinances to dispose of them like simulated bombs.”
At the state competition for SkillsUSA the two have a chance to qualify for nationals, but Hubert said he is most looking forward to “an amazing experience to learn more.”