Five EWSD robotics teams, representing Westford, Founders, and Essex Middle School, advanced to compete at the state competition held at GlobalFoundries on January 17. In addition to competing, students heard from real-life robotics engineers and learned and interacted with multiple robotics presentations, including Boston Dynamics’ Spot robotics dog.
The Milky Way Falcons, a fifth-grade team from FMS made up of students competing for the first time, won two of the six Vermont State trophies. The team took home the Peer Award, which celebrates a team that has been nominated by their peers for their expression of core values and gracious professionalism, and they won the Robot Design Award that highlights a team who uses outstanding programming principles and solid engineering practices to develop a robot that is mechanically sound, durable, efficient, and highly capable of performing challenge missions.
The District saw a big increase in participation in robotics this year, with 72 students making up nine separate teams, compared to 30 students (and five teams) last year. With over 100 teams statewide in grades fourth through eighth, five of the nine EWSD teams advanced to the state championship, which featured a field of 37 squads.
Most of the EWSD participants this year had no prior coding or robotics experience, which is noteworthy as robotics programming often involves a large base of returning, experienced students.
During competitions, students used the LEGO-based robots they designed and programmed to complete challenges during timed rounds. They were also required to give two presentations to judges. One of the presentations lasted over 30 minutes, with students presenting their semester-long innovation projects and their robot design.
Students were judged on the qualities of their design, innovation, communication, problem-solving, and core values, including gracious professionalism. Preparing for the competition required students to develop not just coding skills but also learn how to research, present, manage a team project over time, and engage in real-life STEM challenges with feedback from professionals.