(Click on the first picture to flip through a photostream of 2012 VRC "Sack Attack" South Florida Championship at Gulliver Prep)
Seminole Ridge SECME students competed in the South Florida Championship of the VEX Robotics Competition (VRC) at Gulliver Preparatory School in Miami on Sunday, December 9.
Seminole Ridge VRC Team 1614 consisted of robot driver Jesse Mendheim, and field scout Mitch Lafferty. To prepare for the competition, the group designed and built a robot (affectionately nicknamed “Sack Sucker”) that could quickly and efficiently solve the specific obstacles and challenges in playing VRC Sack Attack.
The action-packed day required middle and high school students to execute VEX Sack Attack, a game that is played on a 12’x12’ square field. Two alliances – one “red” and one “blue” – composed of two teams each, compete in matches consisting of a fifteen-second autonomous period followed by one-minute forty-five seconds of driver-controlled play. The object of the game is to attain a higher score than your opponent alliance by scoring bean-bag like sacks in goals, earning bonus points and ‘parking’ robots at the end of a match.
Our students competed with and against 40 teams from across the state—Melbourne to Miami, Bradenton to Boca. The Hawks finished the qualifying rounds with a record of 3 wins, 5 losses, and missed making the playoffs. But coaches Erich Landstrom and Ed Batchelor are proud of their team taking what they’ve learned in the afterschool SECME program and applying it in an academic sport. Landstrom pointed out that building and programing a competition robot from the ground up, they are developing critical skills for the workforce including hard work, team work, collaboration and leadership: “We are building more than robots here, we are shaping inventors and innovators.”
Each week, Seminole SECME students apply what they‘ve learned about science, technology, engineering, and math in order to build the semiautonomous VEX machines. And through the competition students learn an equally important skill set: communication, project management, site management, and composure, working together on a variety of challenges and obstacles requiring problem-solving skills.
Our SECME VRC team must raise funds to cover the cost of robot parts, competition entry fees, and transportation expenses. Support them this holiday season—make a matching gift at http://tinyurl.com/AdoptSeminoleSECME. All gifts are welcome!
