(WSVN) - A group of aspiring engineers took top honors at a recent robotics competition in Florida. Now, they have their sights set on becoming some of the best in the country. Kevin Ozebek has today’s 7 Spotlight.
School is in session, but this isn’t a typical class.
These students are creating world-class robots.
Dale Adamson, teacher: “They’re practicing their strategy. They’re practicing their driving skills, and they’re working on their codes now.”
This is the STEM Squad at Howard D. McMillan Middle School in Kendale Lakes.
Math and robotics teacher Dale Adamson is their coach.
Dale Adamson: “You do need speed.”
He says at the beginning of the school year, students are divided into teams and told to build a robot as part of a game-based engineering challenge.
It’s called the VEX IQ Competition.
Dale Adamson: “Most of these students didn’t have the experience at all with VEX and with building robots, so it starts very early in the year with us just building up basic skills.”
But the students don’t just build the robots, they have to make them work.
Dale Adamson: “So, in this year’s game, they’re shooting these little orange pucks. They have to be able to gather them out of different dispensers, and they have to be able to shoot them across the field to earn points.”
Throughout the process, they run into problems they have to solve.
Katherine Perez, student: “Our first robot couldn’t shoot so well on the field, and then we had to see what can we do to make this function, what can we do to make this better?”
Dale Adamson, teacher: “But I think we got eight disks shot out, last time we had five.”
The STEM Squad’s hard work has already paid off.
The students recently put their robots to the test by competing in the VEX IQ State Competition in Doral. They left with top honors.
Arthur Saer, student: “The excellence, the teamwork awards and the skills champion awards. We basically got every award we could.”
Five of the nine teams from the STEM Squad did so well at the state competition, they earned a chance to compete against other middle school students from around the world.
Fabian Ordonez, student: “We’re pretty excited because it’s an experience that we never had.”
Later this month, the STEM Squad will compete at the VEX Robotics World Championship in Dallas, Texas.
Dale Adamson, teacher: “There will probably be over 80 countries represented, so it really allows students around Miami-Dade County, around Florida and around the world, to really dive into those problem solving skills that they’re going to need no matter what career they pursue down the road.”
Students will be judged not only on their robot’s performance, but also on how well they built it together as a team.
Fabian Ordonez, student: “We didn’t work as hard as we’re working now because we just saw this like a little thing. But now we’re trying to improve every day on how we can become better in the field and off.”
The students and their teacher hope to sweep the competition at the world championship.
But no matter what happens, they know they have a community and a school cheering them on.
Kevin Ozebek, 7News.
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