First robotics competition in Kayenta draws student teams from two states
Courtesy | Jonathan Yazzie, Monument Valley
High School
Students make final adjustments to their robot during Kayenta’s first FIRST Tech Challenge competition at Monument Valley High School Dec. 13, 2025, as teams prepared for matches against schools from across Arizona and New Mexico.
KAYENTA
Students from across Arizona and New Mexico gathered in Kayenta on Dec. 13 for the community’s first robotics competition, a milestone that brought competitive STEM programming to the Navajo Nation and placed local students on the same field as teams from across the region.
The event marked Kayenta’s debut as a host site for the FIRST Tech Challenge, part of the global FIRST robotics program that engages students ages 5 to 18 in team-based engineering competitions. Fifteen teams competed at Monument Valley High School, representing schools from Arizona and New Mexico, including several from the Navajo Nation.
The competition was organized through RezBotics and delivered by the Coconino High School Robotics Team from Flagstaff, known as the CocoNuts. The Kayenta Unified School District and Monument Valley High School served as venue partners, opening their facilities to teams, coaches and volunteers.
To read the full article, please see the Dec. 26, 2025, edition of the Navajo Times.
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