By Mike Kruzman / news@whmi.com

Students on a Howell High School robotics team have claimed a prestigious award as they motor towards the state championships.

Howell High School’s FIRST Robotics team, S.C.O.T.S. Bots claimed the Chairman’s Award at the Gull Lake FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) District Event earlier this month. The Chairman’s Award is the top honor in FIRST Robotics and is awarded to the team which best represents a model for other teams to emulate, while simultaneously best embodying the mission of FIRST.

The award was created to keep the central vision of FRC on the ultimate goal of transforming the culture in ways that will inspire greater levels of respect and honor for science and technology and encourage more of today’s youth to become science and technology leaders, according to a release from Howell Public Schools.

The Howell team worked in the competition with three other schools from East Kentwood and Zeeland for this year’s FRC game, Rapid React. In Rapid React, teams use engineering and creative thinking to get their robots to process and prepare cargo for transportation.

Winning the Chairman’s Award automatically advances S.C.O.T.S. Bots to the FIRST in Michigan Jackson District Event April 7th to the 9th. The State Championships will be held the following week at Saginaw Valley State University.