Stratford STEM Magnet High isn’t the only robot game in town anymore…
The West End Middle School Robotics Team recently competed in the BEST Robotics Competition at Lipscomb University and received the “Blood, Sweat, and Duct Tape Award.” They were the only school from MNPS to compete.
Click to view slideshow.In case you were wondering, BEST is an annual engineering competition, and it stands for Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology. It puts 14 schools (13 from Tennessee) in a head-to-head robotic test of wills.
Students steer robots they have constructed in class over the past six weeks to complete designated tasks on a game field spread out over the arena floor. Like any other sport, cheerleaders, mascots, friends and family cheer on the mechanical competitors and their drivers.
This year, the robots had to build a faux CPU to upgrade the original BEST robot, by moving wooden dowel rods (“transistors”), coat hangers (“logic gates”) and foam pieces (“components and memory modules”) around the game field.
What a great competition. Thanks, Lipscomb, and congratulations to the West End team!
Filed under: Community Partners, Schools, Students Tagged: lipscomb university, middle schools, robotics, STEM, west end
