A high school robotics team with a genius name earned high praise from judges at a recent state competition.
The Elementary My Dear Botson Robotics Team won the “Motivate Award” at the Missouri State Championships, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Tech Challenge on Saturday, Feb. 24 at the University of Missouri Science and Technology in Rolla, Mo. The seven-member team is comprised of homeschool and Lake Christian Academy, LCA, Sunrise Beach students. Five members were able to attend the competition. Team members who participated in the event were; Tiffany and Michael Vierra, Beth and Kate Boley and Josiah Bates. Rebecca Vierra is their robotics coach.
The team won the Motivate Award because they embrace; the culture of FIRST and clearly portray what it means to be a team. This judged award celebrates the team that represents the essence of the FIRST Tech Challenge competition through team building, team spirit and displayed enthusiasm, by making a collective effort to make FIRST known throughout their school and community and sparking others to embrace the culture of FIRST.
Sparking others to embrace the culture of FIRST
The Elementary My Dear Botson Team is very active in community. They participated in approximately 20 outreaches in 2017. The team taught FIRST to middle and high school students, held a robotics summer camp at LCA, organized a programming day where they invited robotics teams from across the state of Missouri, and they hosted a robotics meet at LCA. The team also volunteered at an area food pantry and churches, participated in a community parades, participated in mission’s trips and more. “Our favorite outreach is teaching kids about robotics,” team co-captain Kate Boley said.
South Super Regionals
The team will next advance to the FIRST South Super Regionals to be held Thursday, March 8 through Saturday, March 10 in Atlanta, GA. Teams advance by winning awards and scoring points. The team will enter the same game and robot. “It’s all about improvements we make in between competitions,” team co-captain and lead programmer Michael Vierra said. Vierra is a homeschool student who started the Elementary My Dear Botson team four years ago to give robotics opportunities to homeschoolers in the area. He has high hopes the team will advance to the FIRST World Championships in April in Houston, TX.
The main goal in the competitions is to build a robot that can retrieve foam cubes from the center of a playing area and move them to a shelf, detect the size of a whiffle ball and knock them off a shelf, (the number depends on which team they are on) and grab plastic relics and extend them over a field wall to place them on a mat. They can earn extra points for additional glyphs. Each shelf holds 12 glyphs. The goal is to place the glyphs in the same pattern, or cither. They are scored in terms of the number of columns and rows made.
The team scored as the 6th highest team at the last competition. “That is because of four years of intense work, without ever stopping,” Vierra said. “I was so excited, I may have cried a bit,” team member, LCA student Peyton Euler said.
According to co-coach Vierra, being a part of the team teaches students, “Hard work, how to apply the math learned in high school, interview skills, team work, fair sportsmanship, mentoring, all life skills that are needed in the real world. “It is so much more than robotics, we have grown in professionalism and we are encouraged to help other teams to do their best, while still doing our best, and that is one way to advance and win awards, by teaching and helping others.”
Public, Christian, private and homeschool students that are interested in being a part of the team or who are interested learning about robotics at an upcoming summer camp may contact the team via email.
