By Ryan Hunter, TechWise Academy—
DELAWARE COUNTY, IN—Over 125 elementary school and 100 middle school robotics teams from across Indiana competed at Lucas Oil Stadium on March 25th in the VEX Robotics State Championship. This represents the largest state championship in the entire country.
Teams have been working since early Fall to design, build, and program a robot to complete various tasks on a 6ft x 8ft field. In competition, they are collaborating real-time with students from other schools to maximize their scores in a one-minute match.
Three teams from Delaware County qualified at this event to attend the World Championship in Dallas, TX in early May.
Royerton Elementary, Team 69191D – The Kings and Queen, received one of three Create Awards, which automatically qualified them to attend Worlds.
The Create Award key criteria are:
-Team demonstrates a creative approach to accomplish game objectives
-Team has committed to ambitious and creative approaches to solving the game challenge
-Students understand and explain how they worked together to develop their robot design and game strategy
-Team interview demonstrates effective communication skills, teamwork, professionalism, and a student-centered ethos
Royerton Kings and Queen
Selma Elementary, Team 21544A – Selma Brave Bots, achieved a high score in both driving and programming to secure their invite to the World Championship.
“My favorite part about our robotics program is that it is completely student-led. Students brainstorm what robot to build, how to add additional elements, learn to code it, analyze the game to create a strategy to score the most points based on their robot and how to work together to build the most reliable robot possible. Along with problem-solving and coding skills, students are also gaining social skills they would not otherwise acquire at this age. Students communicate with other teams at competitions to strategize and score the most points. In addition, they must be able to effectively communicate with judges who are real-world business people to complete their interviews. One of my favorite parts at state was when our team advocated for themselves following a match because of a dispenser malfunction. The students (elementary kids) had to be able to effectively explain to a judge (whom they don’t know) why they should get to re-run their match based on a dispenser malfunction and defend their reasoning based on the rule manual. Robotics allows students to develop critical thinking and social skills that will be beneficial and a necessity for the future they will live in,” says Selma Robotics Coach, Jenna Eastham.
Selma Brave Bots
Finally, four middle school students from Delta Middle School, Team 41406A – Stripped Axles, achieved an overall 10th place finish and achieved high driving and programming scores to receive their World’s invitation.
“My favorite part about coaching this team has been their desire to get better and share what they’ve learned with others. They attended practices to assist local elementary teams and even created a YouTube channel where they filmed and produced instructional videos about various elements of their design. They were often recognized at competitions as other teams had watched their content,” says Ryan Hunter, an Owner of TechWise Academy, and the team’s coach.
Stripped Axles
If you would like information about sponsoring any of these teams, please contact Ryan Hunter ryan@techwiseacademy.com
