MIS/HPMS Robotics Students Test Skills in First Competition

Young Highland Park ISD roboticists got a jumpstart on next season during their first in-house competition on May 2 at Highland Park Middle School/McCulloch Intermediate School.

Fifth and sixth graders put their teamwork and programming skills to the test with VEX IQ robots, while seventh and eighth graders soared to new heights on an aerial drone obstacle course.

Awards were given to first, second, and third place teams, but this contest was more about learning than winning.

“These are kind of like training wheels right now,” said math teacher Tim Caffee, who co-sponsors the MIS/HPMS robotics team with engineering teacher James Sciandra. “This is a little bit of a mini run before we get into next year’s competition.”

Students encountered some technical glitches but helped each other overcome challenges. Teams lent their batteries and drones to other groups in hi-tech trouble.

“There’s no really big competition between us. It’s mainly just us supporting each other through creativity with our code,” seventh-grader Cody Hale said.

Midway through the event, sixth-grader Lucian Siegwart said he thought the competition was going well and that he planned to continue with robotics.

“It’s cool how you can take a bunch of different parts and piece them together to get a functioning machine that can do anything,” he said.

Coffee said he hoped the students learned the value of collaborating to solve larger problems and of trying new experiences outside of their comfort zones, as well as gained an understanding of physics and engineering principles.

Sciandra said that the competition had given students a chance to troubleshoot, be flexible, and adapt without the pressure of trying to beat teams from other schools.

 “It’s OK to fail, especially in the very first competition,” he said.