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WATCH: Robot battles galore

Middle school students took their bots to the main stage

  • Nine schools from SD23 participated
  • Top four teams win medals
  • Great way to teach kids STEAM, applicable skills

Hundreds of kids battling Lego robots after months of preparation.

That was the scene Thursday at the SumoBot Competition, which was back for the first time since the pandemic.

Teams from nine schools in SD23 strategized, designed, built, and programmed robots to autonomously find and push an opponent out of a ring.

“It allows students to learn these essential skills: math skills, thinking skills, or design cycle skills, but then apply them immediately to things of interest to them,” Brendan Stanford, a math teacher from Canyon Falls Middle School, told Kelowna10.

“It’s not just that they’re learning the theory, it’s that they’re able to apply it and see it manifested in front of them and that’s really powerful.”

For Stanford, battling Lego robots is a childhood dream come true, and he’s happy to be teaching students how to build them for the event.

“The main thing that I love in this, is the kids are trying,” he explained. “They’re really putting their heart and soul into this, and their brain, along the way.”

Inside a gymnasium, children and their teachers huddled around tables, fine tuning their machines for battle. Four rings were setup on stage where the battles took place.

“Kind of like sporting events, people get excited for it, so there’s a certain atmosphere and a certain vibe in there,” Tobias Blaskovits, the District STEAM/Learning Technology Consultant, said. “It’s always fun to feel the energy of the kids, this is why we do this because it’s always about the kids.”

Blaskovits said learning in the classroom is great, but events like this allow students to think on their feet and problem solve together as a team.

“I’d love to see more school teams for those kids that aren’t necessarily athletes or are into things like coding and robotics,” he explained.

The process of getting robots ready for the competition takes months, as the students learn to code and designing through lots of trial and error.

“You want to make sure you have a good foundation, especially with your code,” Lily Clerf, a grade 8 student from Canyon Falls Middle School said. “Then you can start adjusting things and adding certain elements you think you might need.”

Her team’s strategy was to keep the movement of their robot slower as faster robots can sometimes lose control and go flying out of the ring, resulting in a loss.

Clerf said her favourite part of the event was finally being able to showcase all the work she and the team put into their robot, and she hopes more girls will become interested in robotics.

“I’m the only girl on my whole team at my school, so I think women need to get more involved and be less scared to come,” she said. “If you’re thinking about it, just do it, pursue your dreams.”

Published 2022-06-09 by Jordan Brenda

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