Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Robotics Team Takes First In Web Design
PRAIRIE GROVE — A group of Prairie Grove Middle School students, participating in their first regional robotics competition, were the youngest group, the largest group and probably one of the loudest groups. They came away with first place for best Web design for their project.
Led by gifted and talented teacher Judith Gaughan, who is just as enthusiastic, the students were recognized at the School Board’s Nov. 17 meeting.
The 18 students participated as a BEST robotics team, BEST standing for Boosting Engineering Science and Technology, at a regional competition held Oct. 18 at University of Arkansas Fort Smith. Each team was given a box of random parts, such as PVC pipe, screws and wire, with the objective to design and build a working robot within a six-week time frame.
Gaughan found out about the competition and persuaded a few students to accompany her to the kick-off event to see what it was all about. They were so excited they decided to try it, giving them only about four weeks to build and prepare their robot for competition, along with finishing other required elements, including a website, a science notebook and t-shirt design.
Students also had to create and decorate a booth to promote their team and were scored on an interview with the judges.
Gaughan does not have all 18 students in one class so they spent many hours after school, meeting in different areas to brainstorm and then actually building a robot. Sometimes they met in engineering classrooms at the high school, the middle school GT room and at a local car shop.
They had to build a robot that would maneuver an obstacle course and perform specific tasks in three minutes, scoring as many points as possible for each task.
Gaughan said she was proud of her students because they were willing to take risks in participating in the competition.
“The BEST competition encourages students to think for themselves while relying on brainstorming and group research to solve the problem,” Gaughan wrote in an email about the experience. “This type of engineering problem solving benefits the students by teaching them application of all subjects while developing team skills that they will be able to utilize throughout life.”