Winning ways: Robotics team advances to national competition

By Brenna Wiegand

The students of Butte Creek School’s VEX 5252z Robotics Team don’t know why they keep defeating high school teams at the state level. They just keep on winning.

Tournament champion at West Salem and Dallas High school competitions, recipient of the both the Judges Award and Robot Skills Award at Evergreen Air and Space Museum, and competing in the Platinum Tournament at last weekend’s Oregon VEX Robotics State Championships, next the team is off to Omaha, Neb., April 3-5 to compete at the national level.

The VEX 5252z team consists of fifth graders Mason Bernel, Quinn Sadaka and Cody Vaughan and seventh grader Korina Chadwick. They meet three afternoons a week after school with teacher Stacy Boost and adult volunteers Zeb Schweickert and Jennifer Chadwick. Between VEX and LEGOS Robotics for beginners, the grownups volunteer four afternoons a week.

Boost’s classroom is arranged around a 12-by-12-foot practice arena where the kids position large and small blue and red plastic balls around rails and bars – the stuff of robotic competitions. The text-based computer programming, mechanics and engineering involved in getting “Mittens” to do their bidding, Boost said, helps students develop skills needed to meet and exceed Oregon State Standards.

Butte Creek’s other VEX team – 5252 – lost two of its four members, but fifth graders Nicholas Eubank and Ethan Frederick and their robot “Kitty” continue to place in the top third at tournaments.

“We have to do everything by ourselves – the engineering notebooks, the building, the programming…” Frederick said. “But you know, even though you’d think computer programming would be pretty hard, it’s actually kind of easy – once you learn how to do it.”

Meanwhile, his friends on 5252z are fine-tuning Mittens for its greatest feat yet.

“Mittens is 12-inches high and we’ve designed and built it so it can reach up to a 3-foot bar,” Chadwick said. “It lifts up and then extends little things that hook on and grab the bar and then it hangs there…” Very few teams can do that.

“…and you get more points if you’re holding a ball and hanging from the bar,” Boost chimed in, “and right now they have it.”

“I love being with the kids; they’re funny,” said Korina’s mother, Jennifer Chadwick. “I just think it’s an amazing program and I love seeing kids grow and learn; my younger son is in the LEGO Robotics program and they both get so much out of it.”

“It’s awesome,” Vaughan said. “I just think it’s good we can do something, maybe, instead of sports.”

“You can be talking to people and getting ideas; every year it’s a fun and different challenge,” Korina said. She’s nervous about the big tournament but confident in their ability to ad lib. “We can do everything, but if something fails we can start doing something else,” she said.

“Doing robotics is pretty fun,” Bernel said. “We just build robots.”

Sadaka was at the computer, programming the 15-second autonomous routine with which a robot begins a match. The goal: knocking the balls into a high-scoring area before their opponent knocks them into a lower-scoring area.

Boost and Schweickert are at work on a district wide VEX IQ Robotics program to improve key state standards, create in-district competition and – with at least 10 teams – qualify Silver Falls to host Oregon’s first VEX IQ tournament next year. A few schools have already called for information.

“We’re really excited,” Boost said. “The biggest thing will be getting the volunteers at each school.”

The Butte Creek team purchased its first VEX IQ team kit ($300) by collecting General Mills box tops and are at about $220 toward a second. The team drummed up support during a recent school auction.

“We’re on a super tight budget,” Boost said. “As coaches, a lot of the things end up just coming out of our pockets, which we think is really worth it. It’s so delightful to see these young children coming up to high school seniors and talking strategy about how they’re going to take on other teams.”

“It’s fun to see kids when they’re really enthusiastic about learning,” said Schweickert, who built a few robots from scrap parts in his college years.

“They are teamed up with another team in competition; this whole program is really set up to encourage teams to work together and bounce ideas off each other.”

This summer they’ll run a class for prospective coaches, but all that’s necessary, said Boost, is a desire to help out kids and a love of robots.

“…but as soon as you get here, you’ll love robots,” she added.