Chaparral Middle aims for BEST regional contest
School has built a dynasty recently
CHAPARRAL — Chaparral Middle School math teacher Rina Viramontes has built somewhat of a dynasty in the past seven years, her teams of young scientists, engineers and robotic experts having won competitions at the state level and competed nationally.
This year’s MESA (Math, Engineering, Science Achievement) students recently gathered in Viramontes’ class to talk about the next step in the academic adventure.
The team last month won the New Mexico BEST (Boosting Engineering Science and Technology Robotics) competition and are raising funds to attend the regional BEST competition in Dallas on Dec. 6-10.
“You cannot go to Dallas with a “C” on your grades. You are the best students here and your grades have to be A’s or B’s,” Viramontes tells her students.
The students brought their ‘A’ game to New Mexico State University for the state robotics competition, which featured a few dozen middle and high school teams throughout New Mexico, Arizona and El Paso. The teams were tasked with developing a robotic device, preparing an engineering notebook, designing a website, making oral presentation before a panel of judges and creating a table display booth.
“This year our students beat all the odds against them and had the best performance of any middle school team in New Mexico and El Paso,” Viramontes wrote in a letter requesting help to fund the trip to Dallas. “We got to the finals and placed third in the robot game challenge. Our team placed first in the Sportsmanship and Spirit, first in their Engineering Notebook, first in Exhibit and Interview, third in robot challenge, second for their website, and first in their Marketing Presentation. As a result, we won first overall in the entire BEST competition.”
In the last six years, Viramontes’ teams have recorded four second-place finishes, one third-place finish and one fourth-place finish at the state level. They also advanced to a national robotics competition held in Philadelphia this summer.
For information on the team, call 575-824-4847.