ROBOTS CLASH AT HIGH SCHOOL

Students participate in Vex Robotics competition

The usual sounds of competition were replaced with the sound of whirring machinery Feb. 17 as the Lorain High School gymnasium was taken over by the Lorain Titans Vex Qualifier.

The competition drew more than 300 students and 64 different teams who took turns competing in a game called Starstruck.

In each match two sides, each made up of two teams, attempted to push cubes and stars over a metal barrier; kind of like a game of volleyball, but instead of the teams moving the items by hand, the heavy lifting was handled by robots built by the students.

Speaking before the qualifying matches began; Superintendent Dr. Jeffrey Graham thanked the parents who made the event possible.

“I think this is just a great way to spend a day,” he said. “I think it’s an opportunity for us to witness what happens when you combine imagination with ingenuity, perseverance and hard work.”

Organizer Deb Hansen, Vex Robotics adviser for Longfellow Middle School, said that the competitions started in Marion and that

“I think this is just a great way to spend a day. I think it’s an opportunity for us to witness what happens when you combine imagination with ingenuity, perseverance and hard work.”

— Superintendent Dr. Jeffrey Graham

the district is trying to bring more of them to the area.

“This is taking what kids are learning in the classroom and now applying those skills,” she said. “They’re taking (all of those skills) and now taking it to another level because they are now designing, building, programming and competing all over Ohio.

“It’s giving the opportunity to experience a competition for those ‘nerd-type’ students,” she said. “It’s preparing them for opportunities for careers and experiencing it.”

Russell Laux, 15, a freshman at Elyria High School, was back in the pit area of the gym. He and his team were frantically attempting to repair their robot Elvis.

“We basically just ripped our (robot’s) guts out, but it’s fixed,” he said.

Russell said that he was dragged to the club by his friends, but it is now a key part of his educational experience.

“Robotics is the only reason why me and a whole bunch of other people come to school,” he said. “We do good in school just so we

can be in this.”

Lanie Prodonovich, 13, a seventh-grader at Brookside, is part of an all-girl team that called themselves The Squirtles. Their robot, named Richard, was adorned with LaserJet printed photos of their team’s namesake and the “cash me outside, how bow dah” girl.

According to Lanie, their team hasn’t been receiving the respect they deserve because they are girls.

“We all know that girls have two arms, boys have two arms and we can do the same things as boys can,” she said.

When the day was over it was the alliance of three teams who were crowned tournament champions: The North Union Middle School and High School teams from Richwood in addition to the River Valley High School team of Caledonia.

Perry High School Robotics from Perry took home the Overall Excellence Award demonstrating their robotics capabilities in multiple areas of competition.

The Middle School Excellence Award went to Brookside Middle School and Brookside High School was victorious in the robot skills competition.

ERIC BONZAR — THE MORNING JOURNAL Seventeen-year-old Yui Ishihara, a junior at Shaker Heights’ Laurel School, puts the finishing touches on her team’s robot before competing in a VEX Robotics Qualifier competition, held at Lorain High School, Feb. 17.

ERIC BONZAR — THE MORNING JOURNAL A controlled robot works to toss a beanbag from its play area to an opponent’s, Feb. 17.