Schools
Waukesha 7th-Graders Compete in World Robotics Event
Robotic skills highlighted but also teamwork and cooperation.
A robotics team of three students from the Waukesha STEM Academy went to the 2010-11 VEX World Championships at the ESPN Wide World of Sports in Orlando, FL, last week.
The team, one of eight teams from Waukesha STEM, won a berth at the championships last fall at a regional competition at Thomas More High School in Milwaukee.
After the fall competitions, the students – seventh graders Andrew Labott, Riley Matthias and Colin Gilgenbach – re-designed, re-built and re-programmed their robot, using sometimes twice weekly meetings over two and a half months to prepare.
Find out what's happening in Waukeshawith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The world championship competition was fierce, with more than 100 teams from all over the world including China, Singapore, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Canada and the United States.
It was a great week with many twists and turns for the team, according to team mentor Al Gilgenbach.
Find out what's happening in Waukeshawith free, real-time updates from Patch.
“They learned a lot about competition, robotics and culture,” he said.
By competing in robotics, in addition to learning robotics skills, one thing the team learned is that competition and cooperation are not mutually exclusive and that good teamwork is very important. This week, they also learned that good communication is an essential bridge for a cultural gap since quite a few alliance partners didn’t speak English.
In VEX robotics competitions, each match joins two teams together to score points and play defense against another alliance of two teams. Overall rankings are determined by games won, with a secondary ranking of the losing teams’ score.
The team, 2098B, ended the competition with three match wins and a rank 76. However, they had the second highest strength of schedule ranking in the middle school division.
“Like many other competitions, robotics is a mixture of preparation and luck and the ranking doesn’t indicate all the team gained by taking part in this competition,” Gilgenbach said.
Beyond the competition, one highlight of the week was the opening ceremonies, which included a talk about the importance of STEM education.
