NORWICH – Continuing its 2011-2012 focus on students, academics and finances, the Norwich City School District Board of Education on Monday heard presentations by the Chenango County FIRST Robotics team, Student Services counselors and Assistant Superintendent Rob Wightman, who laid out the district’s staff development and fringe benefits costs.

The Chenango County FIRST TR-X 145 team – which consists of 18 students from the Norwich, Unadilla Valley, Sherburne-Earlville and Otselic Valley school districts – presented a short video detailing this year’s FIRST Robotics Competition challenge, Rebound Rumble. Last year, the team placed fourth out of 43 teams from across the nation, designing, building, programming and testing its robot over the course of six weeks to complete a specific engineering challenge.

The program, said members of the group, aims to inspire students to “pursue an interest and appreciation for science and technology” and promotes teamwork, cooperation and commitment. The team, they added, works together with a group of mentors Monday through Saturday, dedicating hundreds of hours to the project. In March, the team will travel to the Rochester Institute of Technology for its regional competition.