Seaman High robotics gets a shot at being best in the world

It was the one thing that the Seaman High School students’ robot was supposed to do.

And it just wasn’t doing it.

The students, members of the school’s robotics squad, had spent dozens, if not hundreds, of hours designing and building several iterations of a robot that could drive around a mini arena and fling yellow foam discs at one of two baskets, on opposite corners of the arena.

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But none of that was possible if the robot’s intake couldn’t even pick up the discs, and that was the problem sophomores Simon Gilbert and Reece Mumford had to figure out alongside other members of their team.

They figured out a certain type of wheel could get the intake working properly. Problem was — they didn’t have that kind of wheel on hand, and online parts were out of stock.

So they engineered their way out, shoving in a gear to create a makeshift attachment.

It’s processes like this that have happened hundreds of times in science teacher Chris Goble’s classroom, and it’s one that will play out a few final times this week as two Seaman High School Robotics teams head to the 2023 VEX Robotics World Championship in Dallas and represent the school for the first time at the competition.

The two teams had qualified by way of placing and demonstrating superior skill at the state-level competition, held in early March.

“(Getting to Worlds) is just an indicator of how hard they worked at the end of the season,” Goble said. “They’ve been putting in a lot of time and work revising their robots and getting better designs. It’s also a result of years being involved in this program. It’s nice to be rewarded for that hard work.”

How high school robotics works

Goble, who teaches a robotics class and advises the team, said the competition is an excellent way for students to learn robotics, programming, teamwork and other skills, but also to find friendship.

“It’s fun,” Goble said. “They get the social aspect of being in a club with like-minded people. It’s also a chance for them to put in as much as they want. Kids get different things out of it — some might flex their programming skills, while others like the building or designing parts. Some prefer the strategy part, and that can win.”

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Robotics teams like Seaman High’s compete using materials from the Robotics Education and Competition Foundation’s VEX program. Each year, the program issues a new type of challenge, with student teams charged with figuring out how to make the best robots to meet those challenges.

This year, the challenge is called Spin Up. Teams compete by collecting and flinging as many yellow foam discs as possible, with three points given based on each disc the robots can net into a basket suspended a couple of feet off the ground. However, discs that miss and land under the basket count as one point for the opposing team.

Additionally, the robot that covers the most area in the arena at the end of each match gets three points per tile covered, and teams often design their robots with tentacle-like arms that shoot out in the final 10 seconds to cover as many tiles as possible.

Students build robots from the ground up, designing each component, building it, programming it using coding languages such as C++ and Python.

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“This teaches you to think outside the box,” Mumford said. “There are multiple ways to think about a problem, and there’s not always one clear-cut answer. This game helps a lot of people find stuff they never knew they’d be good at.”

Schools generally group students into teams of about four, but teams can also be as small as one or as large as a dozen. During competition, teams can also partner up with other teams to form alliances that complement each other’s skills.

“It’s been about how to talk to people and learning how to persuade people to work with you,” Gilbert said. “You show how your strengths and weaknesses can complement each other to form the best possible team with the highest chance of winning.”

Seaman High qualified two teams for VEX Robotics Worlds

This year was Goble’s first year as adviser to the team, following program founder Donald Koon’s move out of the district. More than 30 students were students and members in the robotics team and class.

“What sets VEX apart is that it’s very student-centered,” Goble said. “They’re the ones who come up with the designs and doing the engineering notebooks. My job is just to help diagnose problems and give suggestions, but it’s up to them to listen or not. Everything they’ve done has been them.”

Although teams win competitions by getting the most points, the program also gives out other awards based on criteria like best design, best interview and best notebook, or documentation of a team’s design iteration process. Those awards also count toward qualification for higher competitions.

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Teams compete at tournaments held between November and March, although plenty of design work precedes the season by a few months. Seaman High traveled to tournaments around the region in Wichita, Basehor-Linwood and Kansas City, MO, this year as they qualified for state.

At state, two Seaman High teams won awards at state that qualified them for the Worlds competition. Team A, made up of senior Skyler Greening and sophomores Callan Henry and Wyatt Estes, won based on the skills competition, or the amount of points its robot was able to score.

Team B — made up of Reece Mumford, Simon Gilbert, Micah Proplesch, Kaiden Steichen and Lucas Varner — won the design award.

Leaving it all on the line

At Worlds, which starts Tuesday, the Seaman High teams know they’re up against some of the best in the world. Unlike other misnomer “world” competitions, the VEX Robotics Worlds actually brings in teams from not just the U.S. but countries like China and Kazakhstan.

The students said they could hardly believe they’d be here at the start of the season, particularly with as much change and newcomers to the squad. But with a renewed sense of focus and teamwork, they feel ready to take on the competition and learn.

“Yes, the competition is about being the best in the world at this, but I think our teams will get the most out of worlds in getting to see other people’s designs and picking other students’ brains,” Goble said. “There will be a lot of talking to other teams and learning from how they overcame challenges, and they’ll be able to see and learn from all that.”

Greening, a senior on the squad and a leader to his younger teammates, said it’s a bittersweet experience, since Worlds will cap four years of robotics in high school and one year in middle school.

But he’s proud to get to Worlds alongside some great friends he’s met over the years.

“These guys will do great,” Greening said. “I know they will be awesome. After going to state last year and falling short, it took a toll, but with Goble taking over, we helped each other, and under him, I think these guys will win go to a lot more states and maybe even win a few.”

Rafael Garcia is an education reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached at rgarcia@cjonline.com or by phone at ‪785-289-5325. Follow him on Twitter at @byRafaelGarcia.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Seaman High competes at VEX Robotics World Championship in Dallas