Kansas City, MO - The Panthers robotics team was preparing for a competition in Denver when they learned their school was closing due to the coronavirus.
Now the Paola, Kansas high schoolers have focused their brain power and their skills toward printing 3D parts for face shields which they donated to KU Hospital.
"They're very happy to do stuff because there's not a ton of things for them to do, so they were very excited to be able to help," says team mentor Nelson Green.
The students participate in FIRST Robotics competitions, where teams of students build robots that do specific tasks. The teams take their robots to FRC competitions where they work with and compete against other teams from across the country.
Green says they then found a faster design that utilizes materials they could get at hardware and office supply stores.
The team members do all their work without face-to-face meetings... they're using video conferencing for that.
"For this build project, we were actually delivering supplies to the team members at their homes and then they would build it and they would put it back out on the porch and we would pick it up," Green said.
The FIRST Robotics Team 1108 recently delivered 200 masks to the Miami County Medical Center.