By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
If the goal of education is learning and problem solving, the Hoisington Middle School robotics team is mastering it. Two teams recently finished first at the state competition in Garden City. The eight students from those two teams are now headed to the VEX Robotics World Championships in Dallas April 30 through May 2. The teams presented to the USD 431 Board of Education at Monday's meeting.
"I see it every single day where they build something," said HMS Robotics Teacher Augustus Anders. "They have a great idea, they build it, and they test it. Sometimes it works great the first time. Most of the time, though, it doesn't work perfectly, so they have to change it up. Sometimes if something goes wrong in transportation, they have to build right at the tournament. To see my teams focused and striving for that one goal, it's amazing."
Nineteen middle school teams competed at the state competition in Garden City this year. All seven Hoisington teams qualified for state, with four of those teams making the finals. Teams from different schools are paired for each of the six qualifying rounds. Both teams get the points in the collaborative effort, and the points are averaged to determine the 10 finalists. That's where Hoisington lucked out.
"We were up pretty high in the beginning but we moved down a few points," said DJ Wyant, a programmer and driver that was one of eight students nominated for Robotics Student of the Year at state. "What they do is take the top-10 teams and put first and second together, third and fourth, fifth and sixth, and so on."
Because Hoisington was sitting third and fourth, those two teams were put together for the finals: a single round of competition that would determine who goes to Dallas.
"We were lucky enough to have two of our teams paired up," Anders said. "They got 112 points, which is the highest score in the finals in the state of Kansas. Team A also got the highest score overall in the state of Kansas by scoring 120 points. We were pretty excited about that."
The robotics class meets daily. In those 45 minutes, the students are introduced to the game for the competition. Brody Rossman explained this year's game.
"This year's was a game called Slapshot" he said. "There are five towers, and the goal is to get all the pucks out of the towers and to shoot them under a bar. On the other side of the bar, there is a two, a three, a four, and a one-point zone. Whenever you shoot them underneath the bar, you add up all the points at the end."
Each tower requires a different mechanical operation to dispense the discs, from lifting a bar to spinning a wheel to pushing a button. Not all teams will get all the available discs to shoot under the bar for points, but 45 points are on the line for teams that free up all the pucks.
"That's also kind of the beauty of it," said Anders. "Some teams want to focus on one or two towers. They're banking on another team getting the towers they can't get. We were actually fortunate enough that both teams that are going to Dallas can do all three different styles of towers, which is partly why were able to go to worlds."
VEX sponsors virtually everything about the robotics competitions, from the pieces to the playing fields. All schools have access to the same VEX components, though some schools have more VEX pieces. Teams know the goal and set off to construct the robots that will accomplish that goal. Brayden Smith explained the robots have to be smaller than 11 x 19 inches in size, and no more than 15 inches tall. No tools are required as the pieces fit together like Legos.
"It really depends on how much experience you have with it," Smith said. "We've had to change it a lot because we've come up with ideas that haven't worked. We've run into a lot of difficulties finding things that do work."
Isaiah Mitchell explained that once the drive trains are built, the teams must then learn how to activate the towers and build accordingly. All the movement is done by remote control, which the students must program themselves.
"It's a lot simpler on the programming this year," Wyant said. "We program it ourselves. We just go on a computer and type what we want the stuff to do."
Gavin Jackson mostly builds the robot but does a little of everything else. He said the competitions are unique in that teams compete against one another, but they must also work together to maximize points.
Lincoln Blankenship programs and drives and explained the scoring for this year's game. The robot's "shooter thing" is not completely accurate, but the team has a good idea where the pucks will go. The goal is to hit the 4-point zone, which is past the two and three-point zones, but before the 1-point zone that means the puck was overshot.
"We just kind of scoot up a little closer," he said. "We've done this a lot and know the right position to get it into the 4-point zone."
Anders likens this year's game to Shuffleboard with the various point zones. Each team has two drivers and one minute to complete the game, so each driver has approximately 30 seconds to maximize points.
Once the puck is fired under the line it cannot be moved. However, when a team feels it has sufficient points, or as time runs down, they can use an extension arm on the robot to increase or even double points by touching an expansion zone.
The world competition at Dallas' Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center will feature more than 800 teams, each with four or five members. Blankenship was one of the HMS students who was able to attend last year's competition. "It was really interesting because it was like nothing I've ever seen before," he said. "It was really fun meeting a bunch of people from all over the world."
Students on the teams include Smith, Mitchell, and Xavier Stevenson on Team A, and Blankenship, Jackson, Rossman, Wyant, and Cameron Knackstedt on Team D. Coaches are Anders and Anne Selfridge.
"We both work hard with each team both in class and during tournaments," Anders said. "Our job is to encourage and give advice to the students. VEX robotics is a student-lead program, so the kids build the robots, learn the rules of the game, and respectfully keep the refs accountable with calls and scoring."
Registration for the world championships is $1,200 per team. Anders said the teams are seeking donations and sponsorships to help with costs for registration, travel, and boarding. Anyone willing to donate can call the Hoisington Middle School at (620) 653-4951.