New Zealand, Chinese teams win 2010 VEX Robotics World Championship
Major robotic competition for middle and high school aged students is a resounding success; more than 400 teams competed across four divisions for numerous trophies and awards; the tournament champions were an alliance of two New Zealand teams and one Chinese team
The Botball Educational Robotics Program engages middle and high school aged students in a team-oriented robotics competition based on national science education standards. By designing, building, programming, and documenting robots, students use science, engineering, technology, math, and writing skills in a hands-on project that reinforces their learning. Today’s Botball kids are tomorrow’s Scientists and Engineers.
The Botball season begins each year in September with the optional Research and Design Website Challenge where teams are asked to research a topic in robotics and to develop a solution to a related design task. In January and February, the Botball Educator Workshops provide team leaders and mentors with technology training and introduce the details of that year’s game. Then, after a build period of about seven weeks, students bring their robots to their regional tournament.
The VEX Robotics Championship was a resounding success. More than 400 VEX teams competed across four divisions for numerous trophies and awards. The tournament champions were an alliance of two New Zealand teams and one Chinese team. 2921 Free Range Robotics, 2919 K-Force from Kristin School, Free Range Robotics, 2919 K-Force from Kristin School, and 8192A Shanghai Luwan Teenagers Activity Center. The finalists were an alliance of three U.S. teams, 21C Champs Charter High School from California, 44 Green Egg Robotics (defending champions) from Massachusetts and 575 Exothermic Robotics from Washington. Both Free Range and Green Egg are homeschool teams.
A near complete list of awards can be found on the 2010 World Championship event page.
Anton Olsen writes that he spent most of the tournament working the Engineering division. It was exciting, exhausting, and without a doubt one of the most rewarding things he says he has ever done. His and his colleagues ran over 200 matches across 2.5 days with an average time of four minutes per match. This is 2:20 for the match itself and 1:40 to count the score, get the bots off the field, and get the new teams on deck and ready to compete.
Olsen thanks Johnnie from team 1604 The Firebots from Phoenix Charter School in Greenville, and David from 1429 Team KAOS from Galena Park. They stepped in and helped his daughter get to her matches on time and acted as surrogate mentor and coach while he was busy working.
