Robotics Teams Win Awards in Competition
By Stephanie Francis, Sixth Grade Teacher, Superior Middle School
In the spring of 2014, several students and their parents had an interest in bringing robotics to Superior Middle School. They never imagined their interest would lead to two successful teams, Team Got Bots and Team Master Builders, winning fourth and seventh place in the regional First Lego Robotics League Competition this January.
The club got started this fall with an informational meeting for students. Several volunteer coaches (SMS teachers) hoped for 10 students to show up so that a team could be created for the charter club ; 70 students showed up. With the funding Principal Rick Flaherty approved,two teams could be assembled. So, the coaches put the students through a training and tryout period during which the 70 students were pared down to 20, the maximum amount of students allowed on two FIRST Lego Robotics teams.
Students were surprised to find out that being a part of the team meant more than “playing with legos and robots”. There are three major components to the competition: the project, core values and the robot game. Sierra Fanaselle, Samin Abdullah, and Thomas Chicka were all members of Team Master Builders and had specific roles on their team.
Sierra Fanaselle, 7th grader, was part of the project component in which teams are given a real-world problem that must be solved. This year, students were charged with coming up with an innovative way to teach a new concept to someone else. Team Master Builders decided to research the disability dysgraphia and together they developed a model pen which would aid people with the disability. “We didn’t know anything about dysgraphia before we started this research and I believe the pen we developed could be created, if we had the funding to see it through,” says Fanaselle.
Thomas Chicka, 6th grader, was involved with the core values component. Basically, these are the rules that describe how to act during a meeting or competition. Core values include showing good sportsmanship and teamwork during the challenge and robot game. During the core values part of the competition, teams are presented with a challenge and rules as they walk into the room. Judges use a rubric to evaluate how well the team demonstrates the core values while completing the game as instructed.
Teams are encouraged to demonstrate two words patented by the FIRST Lego Robotics League: coopertition and gracious professionalism. Chicka says, “through the robotics club, I learned that Coopertition means getting along with other teams well while competing with them, and gracious professionalism means you are being professional while learning and competing like crazy!”
Samin Abdullah’s job was programming the robot for the robot game. “This is perhaps the most well-known part of FIRST Lego League”, says Abdullah, 8th grader. The challenge is not only to build a robot but then to program it so that it works it’s way through 13 obstacles on a large table. The more difficult the challenge, the more points. For example, opening a door is worth 15 points while throwing a ball into a net is worth 60 points. The teams only have 2 minutes to do all of these obstacles and make changes, if needed. “Even though there is a lot of stress, I believe that the robot game is a fun and exciting way to learn how to build and program a robot,” concluded Abdullah.
Since the competition the two teams have met for practice once monthly, presented to the school board and spoken to the Superior Rotary Club #40. The team is looking for sponsors and donations to sustain the accomplishments of this first, exciting year. If you are interested in hearing more about the SMS Robotics Club or want to donate, please contact coaches Stephanie Francis, Mike Schlangen, or Dan O’Connell at SMS.