Amidst the idyllic natural setting of Maple Valley, robots are on the loose!

But don’t worry – these robots are created by the award-winning student robotics Bear Metal team at Tahoma High School as part of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) – a global robotics community that prepares young people for the future and the world’s leading youth-serving nonprofit advancing STEM education. FIRST robotics competitions provide students with hands-on education that directly translates to career path objectives.

Led by long time coach Darren Collins, two assistant coaches, student executives, and supporting mentors, the Bear Metal team has won a variety of local, state, national and international accolades. After try outs, the accepted students participate in team groups to follow a rigorous project-based schedule that goes beyond the academic year and into popular summer camps and multiple outreach events.

The Bear Metal Robotics team is supported by sub-teams of students that focus on discovering many career-focused activities including business, Impact presentations, essay writing, media/ marketing, design, programming, fabrication, electronics, assembly and systems engineering.

“I learn the most from the students,” said Stacey Roy, one of the supporting mentors. “In my guidance role, I work with the business and media sub teams in concert with the entire team. While the ultimate objective is to create a winning robot, along the way students learn valuable future career skills. The club is treated just like any other sport with students offered the opportunity to obtain a varsity letter.”

The sub-team responsible for robot programming and fabrication rely on a variety of lightweight metal products, including aluminum plate, pipe and tube, plus round bar and flat bar, purchased from Metal Supermarkets to bring their creation to life.

“The robotics club operates like a machine shop and design center with students doing everything from programming machines, doing CAD drawings and really technical stuff that is very applicable in the real world. In many ways, it’s similar to the work conducted by our business customers — so it’s really inspiring,” said Owen Zentil, store owner of Metal Supermarket Seattle (Kent). “We strictly provide metal supply support, but the student team appreciated our ability to chop up the metal so easily at no cost. Although we are providing just a small part to the overall effort, we couldn’t be happier to help. We’re excited to sponsor the team and see how far they go.”

Bear Metal recently won their first competition of the 2024-2025 season. There are two more upcoming scheduled competitions where their goal is to obtain a position in the regional district championships, that if won, would springboard the team into world championship in Houston, Texas in mid-April.