The McKinley High School robotics team will be bringing home a gold medal from the first regional competition in Portland, Ore., where the team helped build a winning robot during the FIRST Robotics Competition.

The McKinley team, part of a three-school group with schools from California and Oregon, received the General Motors Industrial Design Award for its robot design. McKinley is one of five Hawai'i high school robotics teams on the Mainland competing against schools from across the country at various regional competitions. FIRST — For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology — pits teams of high school students and mentors against each other to solve a common engineering problem in a six-week time frame.

The teams use their skills in science, technology, engineering and math to build a robot from motors, batteries, a control system and a mix of automation components, but no instructions.

Hawai'i's teams — McKinley, Waialua, Punahou, Sacred Hearts Academy and Waiakea — are competing in six different regional challenges as part of the FIRST Robotics Competition. McKinley was the first Hawai'i school to compete.

Each team can have as many as 50 people working on the robot.

"The teams have six weeks to build and design from scratch a robot," said Alex Ho, a state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism specialist. "The competitions mirror deadlines of real life. It is all designed to encourage the study of science, technology, engineering and math as future fields."

The competition, which has teams from the United States, Brazil, Canada and Israel, began in 1989 with 28 teams. Today there are 1,500.

Winners of regional robotic competitions will compete in the 2008 FIRST Championship, where three robotics competitions — robotics, technology and LEGO League World Festival — are held at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, April 17 to 19.

LIFESMARTS CONTEST

In other school competition news, students from Kea'au High School on the Big Island took the state title in the fourth annual LifeSmarts consumer education competition held yesterday at the State Capitol. Kea'au won for the second year in a row.

The competition is set like a game-show to test students on their knowledge of personal finance, health and safety, the environment, technology and consumer rights.

The members of the winning team are Tammy Wong, Chelsea Craven, Mariel Mogote, Angelica Tangalin and Camille Thomas.

The team will go on to represent the state at a national competition April 12 to 15 in Minneapolis. LifeSmarts is run by the National Consumers League and the Better Business Bureau Foundation.

"In this competition, student learn about life skills," said Jacqueline Choy, state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs education specialist. "With knowledge about the practical areas of life, students are armed with the tools to becoming smarter consumers."

Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com.