By: Ethan Granados

High School Animatronics competitions require students to demonstrate knowledge of mechanical and control systems by designing, fabricating, and controlling an animatronics device that will communicate, entertain, inform, demonstrate and/or illustrate a topic, idea, subject or concept. Sound, lights and a surrounding environment must accompany the device.

Through months of planning and hours of hard work, Mountain View’s team of six, made up of students Ethan Granados, Kevin Acosta, Rebekah Cornwall, Ricardo Meiji and Seth Reid, overcame all of the issues that faced them. The animatronic was a Benjamin Franklin doll that provided commentary on the Constitution. Moments of last minute adjustments could have been the difference between winning and losing.

On the March 18 the team met at the school at 5:15 a.m. to depart on the buses. After loading up all of the Gear they departed for Davis Applied Technology College in Kaysville. The team tried to get some sleep on the bus after staying awake for more than 24 hours making last-minute adjustments. All the work paid off for Mountain View as they won first place in the overall animatronics competition, qualifying for nationals to take place this June.