I had the great pleasure of attending the Southeast Texas B.E.S.T. Robotics competition at Sam Houston State University this weekend. B.E.S.T. stands for "Boosting Engineering Science and Technology". I didn't just get to attend. In addition to witnessing the robots in action, I was scheduled to judge the Marketing Presentation portion of the day.This year's theme was BUGS! The robots had to retrieve genetically altered insects that had escaped from their laboratory. The 'bot pictured to the right came from a MIDDLE school. 11-year-olds worked on this! They dominated the competition.
What impressed me the most was how well-rounded the competition requirements were. Students are presented with a challenge and a box of materials. Then they are given 6 weeks to design and build a robot that will complete the assigned challenge. Teams must keep a project notebook, develop a marketing presentation, construct a display booth, and last but not least, create a functioning robot to compete head-to-head with other teams.
The requirements of the marketing presentation included brainstorming, professionalism, creativity, publicity efforts in their school and community, team-building, and diversity. I was so impressed by even what first-year competitors had accomplished. Small schools with little support advanced to the final rounds through sheer determination to learn, grow, and compete.
Robotics programs teach problem-solving, teamwork, determination, sportsmanship, professionalism, and so much more. It's not just for the advanced G/T students. Everyone can get involved. The most successful teams had broken their members into departments such as Research, Design, Construction, and Publicity, playing to each of their members' strengths and challenging them to push themselves.
The National BEST website (2011) lists their vision and mission statements:
Our Vision
To excite our nation's students about engineering, science and technology to unlock their imagination and discover their potentialOur Mission
To inspire students to pursue careers in engineering, science, technology, and math through participation in a sports-like science- and engineering-based robotics competitionBelow is a video produced by BEST. I think it does a great job showing what a program like this can do for our students today.
Find more information about getting your students involved on the BEST website above.
If you happen to be in Southeast Texas, you can find regional information here.
BESTRobotics, Inc. (2011, October 30). Best robotics, inc. boosting engineering science and technology. Retrieved from http://www.bestinc.org/
Faq - set best. (2011, October 30). Retrieved from http://www.shsu.edu/set_best/faq.html
Wow, that is so neat!! They definitely didn't offer these type of things at my school. Just the fact that problem solving is taught through something studnts find interesting, like robotics, is amazing! I found a case study that discusss robotics in middle schools and is very informational.
ReplyDeleteIt discusses how lego vehicles can be used to teach students robotics and build their interest in these such programs. It goes through the methods used to teach and to do the project. Robotics is definitely something that I wouldn't mind doing more research on to find out more about implementing it in the classroom, the common classroom.
References
Chambers, Carbonaro, and Rex. Scaffolding Knowledge Construction through Robotic Technology: A Middle School Case Study. Retrievd from http://ejite.isu.edu/Volume6/Chambers.pdf
I too had the pleasure of attending this conference! It was amazing to see what the students had created and the advancement of what the robots had to be able to do! I was juding the sportsmanship/spirit portion of the competion and found that even teams that have never been before, we in the spirit of cheering on their teams as well as others! I felt like we were all there for the same purpose: support the engagement of science through robotics! This was an amazing event. I remember finding myself not looking at my team but looking at what their robot was doing, it was amazing that these students could create these bots to perform these tasks! These students are our future and as my team and I discussed, we need to praise this type of competition instead of making it seem nerdy in order to keep students interested in science and keep technology and science evolving!
ReplyDeleteThis competition was great. We have robotics on our campus, but i did not have any idea what they really did. Once I attended this conference at Sam Houston, I was amazed at what the students learned and accomplished. The enthusiasum these student had about science was amazing.
ReplyDeleteThrough talking to the students, I learned that they had to brainstorm, plan, create and work as a team through trial and error until they came up with a finish product to showcase in the competition. This was a great way to show how the use of technology is increasing in our schools. It also show how it sparks the interest in learning by our students.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVBnVAWwN5E&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL1BCC44B25463201C