Amid the pumping rhythms of “We Are the Champions,” students dressed in team T-shirts hovered over boxy robots fitted with wheels, intake mechanisms and lifts, while referees kept score Saturday at Oconto Falls High School.
Thirty-five teams from three states, representing 15 schools and organizations, participated in the Northeast Wisconsin VEX Robotics Challenge held in the high school gym. For the first time, the competition was held in Oconto Falls, hosted by Oconto County’s Team Green 4-H robotics project.
Teams were given a challenge — tasks for their robots to complete — and competed against other teams. Each team had several months to study the challenge, build prototypes and perfect its unique robot to perform the tasks.
This year’s challenge game, Toss Up, involved moving balls into various zones on a court and lifting and dropping them into plastic containers. Robots had to be programmed to perform tasks autonomously and via remote control. Teams from various schools were paired up in alliances to play alongside and against other alliances during the eight-hour tournament.
Parents and well-wishers cheered as the robots rolled red and blue balls around two, fenced playing fields. Behind the scenes, team members gathered at tables between matches to repair their robots and strategize about upcoming rounds.
Team Green, composed of Oconto County 4-H youth mentored by Kent Lyng, sent two teams and two robots to the event. Early in the tournament, one of the robots experienced a breakdown, and a new part was suddenly needed.
“We had some major issues, but we had some great generosity from DITEC ARME (a Kingsford, Mich., team). They basically saved us, and it’s pretty cool,” said Jake Sellhausen, a member of Team Green. “Our controller went kaput. They loaned us one of theirs. That’s a $250 part.”
That generosity was rewarded when both Team Green and DITEC ARME were nominated for the Sportsmanship Award, and the Michigan team won.
Team Green was also nominated for two other awards and went home with the Judge’s Award. Last year, Team Green placed second at the St. Mary Central VEX Robotics Championship in Neenah.
Seventh-grader Lincoln Kazinski is in his first year of robotics competition with Team Green and is loving it. He said his first-ever robot design experience was amazing.
“I’m surprised at how fast and how good it is, and that we built it in the time we had. That’s what really amazes me about this robot,” he said.
Competitions are organized by the Robotics Education Foundation, and Marc Couture, its regional support manager, was in Oconto Falls to cheer on the teams. Couture said the program engages youth and motivates them to pursue math and design concepts they never had a way to apply before.
“You get kids from the classroom that used to say, ‘Teacher, why are you forcing us to learn this?’ And all of a sudden they start asking questions like, ‘I need to know more about gear ratios.’ They’re the ones who become very engaged, very motivated learners,” he said.
Brandon Dehne returned after graduating from high school to mentor Team Green students. He said he likes to see the teamwork fostered in the program. Although Team Green was eliminated from the competition in the quarter finals, Dehne was not discouraged.
“If they don’t win, they don’t let that bother them, and they don’t get mad at each other for it. They look at what they can do to do it better the next time. They work together to solve problems,” he said.
He said the robotics challenge benefits participants in several ways.
“Not only do they learn skills for engineering, they also learn how to work together as a team and how to interact behind the scenes. I work with kids who have autism. I learned a lot of those skills from VEX,” he said.
Saturday’s regional championship was claimed by an alliance of teams from Batavia, Ill., and St. Mary’s Central of Neenah. Finalists hailed from Appleton and Fond du Lac. Winners advance to a state competition Feb. 21 and 22 at Xavier High School in Appleton.
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