Sixteen Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) VEX IQ robotics teams participated in the Feb. 8 Southern Maryland VEX IQ Tournament at Great Mills High School in St. Mary’s County.
Two CCPS teams, Team 31890A and Team 31890B of the Robo Huskies from Dr. Thomas L. Higdon Elementary School, advanced to the state competition at South Hagerstown High School in Hagerstown on Feb. 22.
Students on Team 31890A were Jack Wheeler, fourth grade, and fifth graders Elena Dutton, Eli Hamilton, Sadie Wustner, Luke Riffle and Evie Lukas. The team is coached by Jacob Gerding, a media specialist at Higdon, and Darryll Bramer, a community volunteer.
Team 31890B includes fourth graders Jayla White, Garrett Hales and Elizabeth Bowling-Cook, and fifth graders Madelyn Rawlings, Logen Bowling and David Kelley. Gerding and Bramer coach the team.
Five CCPS teams were honored as awardees:
- The Wildcats, Team 9041A, from William B. Wade Elementary School, received the Think Award. The award recognizes the most effective and consistent use of coding techniques and programming design solutions to solve the game challenge.
Team members include fifth graders Wesley Perez, Sebastian Arco, Blake Burton, Xaiden Oubre, Talha Qureshi, Emmanuel Hosendorf and Logan Anderson. The team is coached by Robert Crowley, a physical education teacher at Wade.
- The Wildcats, Team 9041B, from Wade, received the Judges Award. The award is given to teams that judges determined were deserving of special recognition because of a team’s exemplary effort, professionalism and teamwork. Team members include fourth graders Jeremiah Donald, Willa Watney, Isabella Pachecco, Rachael Genson and Zahran Sheikh; and fifth grader Sa’mya Adeyeye.
- Team 31890A, the RoboHuskies from Higdon, won the Innovate Award. The award recognizes an effective and well-documented design process for a novel aspect of the team’s robot design or gameplay strategy.
- The CyberHawks, Team 59351A, from William A. Diggs Elementary School, won the Build Award. The award recognizes a well-constructed robot that is built with a high degree of attention to detail to hold up to the rigors of competition. Team members include fifth graders Samantha Holland, Eldana Derese, Brooke Newford, Camryn Buoy and TraVell West; and fourth grader Autumn Proctor. The team is coached by Khamarri Hemsley, an instructional assistant (IA) at Diggs.
- Team 95187A, the Owls from Arthur Middleton Elementary School, won the Inspire Award. The award is presented to the team that has inspired judges with its science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) research project presentation. Team members include fourth graders Santiago Real and Samriddeh Bhattrai, as well as fifth graders Giovanni Heath, Dominic Nelson, Manasseh Amoah, Oluchi Mbah, Caroline Youmans, Dipika Jadeja, Khyia Brockenberry, Kyler Price-Deal and Meagan Jones. The team is coached by Susan Heywood, a science teacher at Middleton.
VEX IQ is a rigorous, competitive, robotics program for elementary and middle school students. CCPS students participated in the Rapid Relay challenge played on a six-inch by eight-inch rectangular field. Two robots compete in the Teamwork challenge as an alliance in 60-second-long teamwork matches, working collaboratively to score points.
