Teams from Cold Spring School and the Center for Inquiry 2 came away with several major accomplishments at the recent VEX Robotics World Championship in Dallas.
Competing in the global competition, Cold Spring’s middle school teams made it to the division finals and two of the three elementary school teams were in their division finals.
David Petty and Genevieve Mcleish-Petty, co-coaches for Cold Spring, said their team exceeded its goals.
“We have had the privilege of learning with some of our middle school students since fourth grade,” the coaches said. “We could not be more proud of their work ethic and willingness to push themselves while teaching our younger students as well. The elementary school was mostly students who had never competed in a season before and they surpassed all expectations.
“The experience was fun and educational for our kids and they did an exceptional job of representing Cold Spring and IPS. We are grateful for being given the opportunity and for the chance to grow our robotics program.”
Cold Spring overall placements:
- Middle School Team A: Finished third in its division, winning the Judges Award.
- Middle School Team: Finished sixth in its division, receiving a perfect score in one of the events. The team received the Energy Award.
- Elementary School Team C: Finished third in its division.
- Elementary School Team D: Finished eighth in its division, winning the Energy Award.
- Elementary School Team: Finished 22nd in its division, but missed qualifying for the division finals by less than half a point.
The Center for Inquiry School 2 Steampunk Panthers, a middle school team, made it to their division finals and finished the competition ranked in the world’s top 100 teams. The three-student team also finished 84th in the individual skills competition.
John Stevenson, the team’s co-coach, said the team continuously improved from the beginning of the year through the world championships.
“They learn teamwork and sportsmanship. A team from Connecticut had shipped their robot and it was lost by the venue,” he said. “When our team found out, they provided some of the parts needed to help the Connecticut team get a robot built to compete.”
The VEX Robotics Competition, presented by the Robotics Education and Competition Foundation, is the largest and fastest-growing middle and high school robotics program globally. Each year, an exciting engineering challenge is presented in the form of a game. Students, with guidance from their teachers and mentors, build innovative robots and compete year-round.
In addition to learning valuable engineering skills, students gain life skills such as teamwork, perseverance, communication, collaboration, project management, and critical thinking. The VEX Robotics Competition prepares students to become future innovators, with 95% of participants reporting an increased interest in STEM subject areas (science, technology, engineering and mathematics)and pursuing STEM-related careers.