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Metro Homeschool Claims Best of BEST
(Posted: November 2, 2009) (Printable Version)
The competition was fierce in the 2009 River Valley BEST Robotics competition, held Oct. 31 at the Stubblefield Center on the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith campus, as 12 teams were pitted against each other in a head-to-head battle of strategy, creativity and mechanical savvy.
In the end Metro Homeschool of Blue Springs, Mo., was victorious, taking first place in both the BEST Award category, given to the team that most embodies the concept of BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology), as well as first place in the Robot Competition.
Other placing teams were J.D. Leftwich High School of Magazine, second place in BEST; Western Arkansas Technical Center, second place in game; Chaffin Junior High, third place in BEST and fourth place in game; and Darby/Kimmons junior highs, third place in game.
During the competition teams are judged not only on the design and performance of their robots, but also on several other areas including a project notebook, table display, interview, team Web page, T-shirt design, and spirit and sportsmanship.
Additional awards were presented to WATC for best T-shirt design and most robust machine; Mulberry/Pleasant View High School for best Web page and best table display; Chaffin for most spirit and sportsmanship; Metro Homeschool for best project notebook, most elegant robot and the Founders Award; and J.D. Leftwich for most photogenic machine.
“The competition is fun and the best always rise to the top,” said John Martini, assistant professor of electronics technology and director of River Valley BEST. “In my opinion there are no losers. All of these teams and students are winners and should be applauded for their tremendous dedication, effort and perseverance in spite of the difficult task they had to undertake.”
Martini also said he is proud of and impressed by the effort and dedication put forth each year by every team. This year the competition was made a little more difficult by introducing some of the more unique capabilities of the robot controller the BRAIN.
“This year’s competition is the first time BEST participants were able to interact with an intelligent game field,” he said, “one that would respond to the input from their robot, which enabled them to stretch their creativity and problem solving skills. BEST is not meant to be an easy task. Something worth having requires hard work and determination to accomplish the goal set before us.”
Because of their rankings in the River Valley competition, Chaffin, J.D. Leftwich, Metro Homeschool and WATC will move on to the next level of competition, Frontier Trails BEST, scheduled for Dec. 3-5 at UA Fort Smith and the Fort Smith Convention Center.
This year’s Frontier Trails BEST will bring to town 40 teams from 10 hubs in Arkansas, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota. For more information on Frontier Trails BEST, including volunteer opportunities, go to www.uafortsmith.edu/FTBEST.
| Article by: Jessica Martin, Public Relations Assistant | |
| Photo(s) by: Kat Wilson & Adrianna Carter, Marketing and Communications |
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