FAIRMONT, W.Va. (WBOY) — Sunday was the first day of the West Virginia VEX Robotics State Championship, bringing K-12 robotics students from around the Mountain State together to show off their smarts and skills.
While Fairmont State is on spring break, these students will take over the Falcon Center and be competing to see who gets to go to the VEX World championships in Dallas. 12 News caught some of the high school competition, which takes place Sunday and Monday.
For the competition, students were challenged to pilot their robot around a course and put plastic rings on sticks to earn points. Students can also win judging awards with judges looking through and analyzing their engineering notebooks.
Dr. Todd Ensign was the judge advisor for the West Virginia VEX Robotics State Championship. When asked about what students get out of robotics, he said students learn a lot of hard skills – engineering, designing, arts, coding, and generally just learning how to solve a problem, and that robotics also offers an opportunity for students to grow in self-confidence and friendship.
12 News also spoke to several students who said that they’ve made great friends while doing robotics. Jeremiah Franklin from Ripley High School said, “The most fun part about it is just being in the robotics room, hanging out with my friends, and seeing what we can make.”
Macy Smith of Spring Valley High School said, “I love building a robot, but I also love all my friends I’ve made throughout this entire thing. I mean, because in years and years of doing robotics I just kinda learned to love the people too.”
Content retrieved from: https://www.yahoo.com/news/students-compete-statewide-robotics-competition-223357931.html.
