Students from Lake Orion’s Scripps and Oakview Middle Schools traveled to Cedar Rapids, Iowa in late March to participate in the FIRST Tech Challenge North Super-Regional robotics tournament, where they competed against 70 other teams from 14 states.
Scripps and Oakview teams qualified for the regional event by successfully competing in local robotics tournaments held earlier this year.
Working with their mentors, the students designed and built a robot that uses cellphone technology, as well as metal gears, motors, sensors and game controllers. Math, science, technology and sound engineering principles are used.
The robots compete in the Velocity Vortex, an action-packed game that pits machines against one another in a test of precision and speed.
The Scripps robotics team ripped through the competition in Iowa, finishing in second place overall.
The team qualified for the knockout round with a 6-2-1 record in early bouts, went 2-1 in the semi-finals, 2-0 in the finals and then lost 0-2 in the Championship.
Oakview’s team did not fare as well, finishing 2-6 in the opening rounds.
Scripps’ second place finish at the regional event qualified the team to compete at the FTC World Championships in April in St. Louis.
“FIRST Tech Challenge promotes exciting, project-based learning in a fun environment,” said Rebecca Whitaker, University of Iowa College of Engineering.
“This experience gives boys and girls the knowledge and experience to become innovation leaders.”