Elementary and middle school robotics teams from around the region were at Woodland Hills High School on Friday, December 6 for the Woodland Hills Blended VIQRC Western PA Qualifying Tournament. The event is part of the national VEX IQ Robotics Competition and featured students in grades 3 through 8.
Students from Woodland Hills were joined by students from the Clairton School District, the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, Environmental Charter School, Penn Hills Entrepreneurship School, MySTEM Academy, Magnus Robotics in Harrisburg, and Grit Clubs, LLC. from Perry Hall in Maryland.
Throughout the day, 22 teams competed in a pair of challenges on the VEX IQ Robotics Competition Rapid Relay Field. The Rapid Relay Field features a moderate sized mat with a quartet of goals at one end. Teams collect foam balls with their robots and have to deposit them in the goals. The balls can be carried, passed, and shot a variety of ways. Teams designed their own robots and the competition showcased their ingenuity. Some teams opted for a catapult method to propel the ball. Others preferred a conveyor belt. One team even developed a way to collect and deposit two balls at once.
The first challenge gave teams up to three attempts to score as many points on their own via coding their robot and up to three attempts to score points via driving the robot through the controller. Each attempt lasted 60 seconds. The scores were then averaged together.
The other challenge randomly paired teams into alliances. The teams were required to work together to score as many points as possible in 60 seconds. The teams received points for completed passes and for goals.
The teams received various awards at the end of the competition. The Alliance Competition champions were the team from Magnus Robotics and a team from Environmental Charter School. The team from Magnus Robotics also won the Skills Competition and received the Excellence Award, which recognized their overall performance throughout the day. The students from Perry Hall were recognized with the Innovate Award for their creative approach to the competition.
Team "Hardwired" from Dickson Preparatory STEAM Academy was recognized for the Judges Award, which honors exemplary effort and perseverance at the event, team accomplishments, or other attributes not applicable to other award categories. The team includes Woodland Hills students Rayhan, Jonas, Wasim, Kamran, and Sam from Dickson.
