Teamwork pays off at VEX Robotics competition
Teamwork helped robots reach their goals at a state robotics championship.
Several dozen teams from as far away as Oklahoma City and Stillwater competed in the VEX Robotics High Stakes Middle School and High School State Championships, held Thursday and Friday at Hatbox Event Center.
For this competition, teamwork meant pairing with another school to go against competitors.
'You find you a teammate and try to come up with a strategy,' said Hilldale competitor Taylor Stevens. 'With teams that are in a match, you try to figure out what to do.'
Taylor said teams get to pick each other in final and semifinal rounds.
'In qualifying, we just end up with them,' he said, adding that teams are assigned.
Teams must get their robots to move rings to a corner, put rings on stationary pegs, then put rings on movable pegs and move the pegs to a corner. Teams must build and program the robots and drive them across the court.
The robots can be stubborn.
Hilldale eighth grader Jaxon Nail said he had to air up a pneumatic cylinder, 'so we can scoop up the rings on the conveyor belt and pop them onto the goal.'
David Bandy, an event organizer, said robotics involves a variety of skills.
'You've got electronics, you've got coding, you've got mechanics, sprockets, gears, chains,' he said. 'You have to fine tune that robot for it to work efficiently.'
Such skills can lead to different careers, he said.
'It doesn't have to be engineering,' Bandy said. 'It could be mechanics, heating and air, construction or plumbing. A lot of these kids who work with their hands like this are self-motivated. They'll find something out there. Some might end up taking it and going to medical school.'
Verdigris freshman William Ray was the only member of his school team, and it's hard. He said he qualified for State by winning a tournament at his school.
William said Thursday his day so far was 'not the greatest.'
He said his robot was gutted in an earlier match.
'A part tipped over into the robot and, the rubber end was wrapped around my chain,' he said. 'Someone actually yanked it out and it ripped apart.'
He was paired Thursday with a team representing Oklahoma City area private schools. He said he learned from them and hopes they are learning from him.
'I'm definitely learning more about drive trains,' he said. 'I'm learning a lot about different things just being here. It's a collaborative effort of everyone to work as much as possible with people with different ideas and different goals.'
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