The robotics team received the Rookie of the Year Award and the High Seed Award, guaranteeing them a place at the Tech Challenge World Championship to be held in St. Louis next week.
In order to receive these awards, the robotics team competed in the FIRST Robotics Greater DC Regional at George Mason University on March 26 and 28. Forty-seven groups were in attendance.
Each team had six weeks to build their robot, beginning on the first Saturday in January.
“We had a group of 15 kids that would show up consistently working on different parts of the robot—programming, manufacturing parts, testing and designing,” said graphic design and robotics teacher Patrick Ander.
But it wasn’t just students and their mentors working on the robots: a Coast Guard also came to teach the mechanics of building the robot.
The team even had a corporate sponsor. According to mentor and STEM teacher Marie Farson, starting a team costs $6,000, a bill that was split between science and technology consultant Booz Allen Hamilton and Virginia FIRST.
This year’s game was Recycle Rush, in which each team’s robot must stack recycling bins and creates on of each other. After the Friday and Saturday morning competitions, Marshall was one of the eight teams to advance into the championship round.
There, the students chose two other teams to join an alliance, then battled their opposing three-team alliance.
“You’re trying to find the best combo of teams that work with you well,” freshman Julia Garbert said.
The Marshall team is now packing up the robot to send it to St. Louis; it will get there before the students arrive later this month.
The students are excited to see how their handmade creation performs at the upcoming competition.
“I programmed a robot that’s going to worlds, so that’s pretty hype,” senior Michael-Andrew Keays said. “I’m excited to see that.”