Score: Robots battled for points at the Alachua County schools VEX Robotics Competition
Over 160 students participated in the Alachua County Public Schools annual VEX Robotics Competition at Lincoln Middle School Thursday for a chance to advance to the state finals.
Elementary and middle school tournaments ran simultaneously, with around 50 registered teams showcasing their robotics skills to judges. The 24 middle school teams and 22 elementary school teams, which had four to five students per team, competed individually and collaboratively.
Chris Dodyk, instructional technology (IT) coach for Alachua County Public Schools, said the skills challenge was an independent competition where students had six chances to drive the robots by themselves and obtain the most points – three times with a coded program that allows the robot to run autonomously and three times with the students operating the robot themselves.
The bulk of the event, however, was the teamwork challenge where teams were randomly paired for eight matches with other schools and tried to obtain the most points.
"They're not working against each other, they're working with the other team to accrue the points," Dodyk said. "At the end of the day, once you have the finals' matches, the top eight teams go to the finals in four alliances and then the very top two that win go on to states."
Recipients of the Excellence Award (one elementary and one middle school team), the Teamwork Champion Award (two elementary and two middle school teams) and the Design Award (one elementary and one middle school team) will go to the statewide competition.
"They were screaming, they had other teammates on other teams cheering for them," he said "There was just so much energy, and we've been doing this for nine years and I will say that that was the best that I've been a part of."
Prior competition: Alachua County students compete in annual robotics competition
An impact on students
Dodyk said during his eight years overseeing robotics he's seen the program's positive impact on students.
"The biggest thing to me isn't the knowledge of programming, isn't the competitiveness, it's the team building," he said. "This forces them to talk and plan and strategize, and that critical thinking skill, that's so important. So it's just awesome to be at one of those events."
Dodyk said that despite it not being many schools' main focus amidst other struggles, he hopes the robotics program can expand to more schools in Alachua County and give students the opportunity to continue the program in high school.
"The biggest push, though, that I would really like to see... is I'd like all the high schools to get on board, because we only have a handful of high schools that are involved in the smallest mark," he said. "The problem is these kids come out of these robust programs in middle school or elementary school, they go to high school, and then they're like, 'Oh, we don't have a program' and all that hard work and all that excitement is just flattened."
Five high schools competed on Jan. 20: Gainesville High, Buchholz, Newberry High, Eastside and Loften. Out of those, teams advancing to the statewide competition include Buchholz's "Base 2 Bobcats" which won Excellence and Tournament Champions as well as Eastside's "Drumroll Please" that won Tournament Champions and Design Award.
The department purchased enough materials (games and extra robots) in an attempt to help schools participate this year, but many didn't buy into it, which he understands, Dodyk said.
Around 12 elementary schools participate in robotics but some teams didn't attend Thursday because they didn't feel ready. Most middle schools in the district, other than a couple, also participate in the program.
Thursday's winning teams, along with the high school winners, will represent Alachua County in the Central/North Florida State Vex Competitions in March, giving them a chance to go on to compete at the World Competition in May.
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Elementary winners:
Design
Wiles Elementary School / Team name: Sheesh
Excellence
Glen Springs Elementary School / Team name: ROBO Tigers
Teamwork
Glen Springs Elementary School / Team name: ROBO Tigers
Glen Springs Elementary School / Team name: T Tigers
Middle school winners:
Design
Lincoln Middle School / Team name: Green House
Excellence
Westwood Middle School / Team name: Snoobert and the Wabungaltors
Teamwork
Lincoln Middle School / Team name: Green House
Westwood Middle School / Team name: Snoobert and the Wabungaltors
Other acknowledgements:
Judge’s Award
Glen Springs Elementary School / Team name: T Tigers
Westwood Middle School / Team name: Donkay!!!
Robot Skills
Glen Springs Elementary School / Team name: ROBO Tigers
Lincoln Middle School / Team name: Green House
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Alachua County schools annual Vex Robotics Competition
