STEM students network, teach others at W.Va. state robotics championship
Apr. 17—FAIRMONT — High school students from across the state competed in the Robotics State Championship Saturday at Fairmont State University.
The tournament was hosted for the second year in a row by the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission. The theme for this year's challenge was Disc Golf, which tasked students with creating a robot that could collect and shoot discs at a basket. Along with coding and developing a robot, the core values of FIRST Robotics are discovery, innovation, impact, inclusion, teamwork and fun, which are taught at every level of robotics.
"Proud is a short answer. I'm inspired by the work the students have done — hundreds and hundreds of hours of building, designing and testing the robots to get to here," NASA IV&V Facility Educator Resource Center Program Manager Todd Ensign said.
Ensign said he was happy the event was able to be completely free for students, due to corporate sponsors Aurora Flight Sciences and A3L Federal Works. For the past six years, Ensign, administrators, robotics coaches and parents petitioned the WVSSAC for robotics to be recognized as an official activity, so they would be able to better spread programs throughout the state.
"We really felt that for us to increase access and equity, so that more kids can have a chance to participate in competitive robotics, we really needed their recognition and their endorsement. There's so many parts of our state that, no matter what we do, we're just not making traction. It's not fair to the kids in those schools to not have the chance to experience this potentially life-changing event," Ensign said.
Several teams attended that had to traveled hours to compete, however, North Marion High's Robotics Team was not one of them. For Senior Kameron Riggins, he competed in his last high school level robotics competition.
He originally joined robotics as a way to get out of the house, but he will be attending Marshall University and participating in their college-level robotics league. He serves as the primary driver of the robot for their team, but that title will be passed to Sophomore Kayleigh Zemerick after he graduates.
"I ended up really liking robotics. It's fun and it's competitive, but it's also focused on teamwork and trying to do your best," Riggins said.
North Marion freshman Madyson Board became involved with robotics for similar reasons and enjoyed her first year competing and coding the robot.
"I really like it because it's a great learning experience. It has helped me understand code better. We all helped out, we all were able to do what we were good at.
"We all found each other strengths and weaknesses and work together to make it all work," Board said.
Coaches and North Marion High math teachers Jamie Knight and Kaitlyn Knight said they were proud of the team, who recently competed in an event in Iowa. The team distributed jobs based on everyone's skills and worked together well throughout the year. They prioritized playing defensively in competitions.
"Initially, the most difficult part is usually just getting students thinking about problem solving and getting them in the mindset — developing multiple paths to problem solving and taking the best option," Jamie Knight said.
But, as robotics coaches, their job is to let students work through their problems on their own. Both coaches said they love watching the team develop, problem solve and meet and talk with other teams.
"It's hard to get kids talking about science, math and academic discussions. But in an environment like this, they just do. They talk with other teams. They are forming this network of connections with teams, other coaches and leaders in our STEM field around the state. It gives them that opportunity to have those academic discussions that they don't necessarily have in other venues," Kaitlyn Knight said.
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