The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
ROBOTICS TEAMS ON A MISSION
Students compete to fill state qualifier spots in March in Marion
Over 60 Ohio high school and middle school robotics teams competed Feb. 16 at a 2019 Lorain Titans VEX Qualifier for the last available spots in the VEX State Championship March 1-2 in Marion, Ohio.
There were 51 high school robotics teams and 14 middle school teams that participated in the third annual qualifier, which was held in Lorain High School gymnasium at 2600 Ashland Ave.
Some of the teams included were from Lorain, Elyria, Sheffield-Sheffield Lake, South Amherst, Cleveland Heights, Perrysburgh, Loudonville and others from Ohio.
Middle and high school students teamed up in alliances and faced one another in the challenge called Turning Point.
The game is played by stacking caps on posts, flipping caps, stacking balls on caps, toggling flags by throwing balls and parking robots.
Teams that qualify for the state championship will then compete to acquire one of the few spots to represent Ohio in the VEX World Championship in April in Louisville, Kentucky.
"They do the programming, they do the building, they do their designing." — Denise Fahrney, Lorain City Schools
Denise Fahrney, science teacher and head coach of Longfellow Middle School robotics teams, said all three Longfellow teams qualified for state, but were happy to compete in their home field while testing their skills among other teams in Ohio.
Fahrney said all three of the middle school’s teams have received awards through different competitions during the year and made it to the VEX World Championship last year.
“They have come and grown through leaps and depths, and we are so proud of our program because they do it all,” Fahrney said. “They do the programming, they do the building, they do their designing.
We as coaches will give suggestions or thought process, but they go and do what they want to do to see what best succeeds. I feel as a coach, I’m just a coach in guiding them.”
Robotics is the only school activity or sport where middle schoolers can compete against high schoolers; facing different skill levels, she said.
“I think this gives (any team) the self-confidence, after first feeling intimidated (against older students), but after they start doing well, they realize they can do it,” Fahrney said.
Lorain VEX Qualifier Coordinator Debbie Hansen, said the opportunity for middle schoolers to compete with high school students and face one another challenges many responsibilities and skills.
Hansen said middle school students are having
to communicate with high schoolers to compete as a team, which can create confidence and strength in their abilities in teamwork.
“The neat thing about VEX is that we all help each other out,” she said.
Additionally, Hansen said she enjoys robotics because it is more than just competing in the ring.
While developing skills in confidence, presentation, performance, teamwork and communication within the field, teams are also being judged on their work behind the scenes.
Early in the school year, teams will begin documenting their work of how they begin the robotic process and meet the requirements needed to complete the year’s VEX challenge.
In any VEX competition, students are judged on five different areas which are on excellence, design, judging,
innovate, and create.
Volunteer Judge Bambi Dillon said teams who qualify for the next competition must succeed in the excellence and design categories.
Both categories fall under the team’s documentation of their entire work, Dillon said.
All documentation should be complete to the point where someone else can re-create the team’s work as well as distinguish each member’s responsibility and identify their use of teamwork.
“If anyone took the time to read these books, they are so talented at such a young age,” Dillon said. “They hold a level of professionalism and teaches them a lot.”
Another volunteer, Ryan Corrigan, said judges will then meet high school and middle school teams and judge them on their documentation
while going through an interview process.
“This prepares them for real world opportunities when putting them in front of others and judges they don’t know,” Corrigan said.
Hansen, who was previously a Longfellow Middle School teacher and robotics head coach, said there are mixed grade-level competitions.
Lorain competitions and robotics teams would not be possible without community support.
“If we wouldn’t have them, (the students) wouldn’t have anything of this,” she said. “This is a phenomenal program and we’re proud to have it for our schools and others in Lorain County.”
Hansen said they want to have a strong Lorain County robotics representation.