Robotics News
Bryleigh-Ann Legg
Robotics Coordinator
Classroom Teacher
It has been another busy year for the Highvale Robotics Club, with competitions giving our students plenty of opportunities to put their robots to the test. There is a great deal of work behind every competition appearance, and our students deserve recognition for the time and effort they put into designing, building and programming their robots. Getting a robot to do what you intended is an achievement in itself!
Highvale’s Robotics Competition
On 25 July, Highvale hosted its own VEX Robotics competition, welcoming teams from other schools for a day of competition on home ground. Hosting an event is a considerable undertaking, and I would like to thank the students, families and staff who helped make it possible. A particular thanks goes to all the volunteers who stayed behind on Friday after school to ensure everything was set up.
On the competition field, Team 97230G (Sahasra K., Amelia W., Alyssa C., Summer C., Reesa D) made it to the semi-finals and placed 5th overall. Another highlight was Team 97230A (Krishan L., Ben B., Param B., Alex K., Lucy G., Liam D.) who as well competed in their first competition, which is a milestone in of itself.
Congratulations to everyone who represented Highvale!
Hampton Park
Our next competition took place at Hampton Park on 14 August, giving our teams another opportunity to see how their designs performed against other schools.
Special recognition goes to Team 71931B (Eason C., Xavier L., Haotian L., Zichen W., Prathik A., Zian W., Ainggkaran N., Riaz J.), who placed 1st and won the Teamwork Champion Award! We would also like to acknowledge 71931A (Zachary C, Sarvang J., Ishaan R., Elkan G., Advaith M) for their 2nd place ranking. This was a prelude to the success yet to come!
Copperfield
Finally, on 12 September, our students headed to Copperfield College for another round of competition.
Team 71931A again had a 2nd place finish being 16 points shy of taking the win, while Team 97230G achieved a one verses two victory with their new design. Each team has many things to be proud of as they continue to refine their designs before the State championships later this year.
Volunteer Judges Needed!
These opportunities depend on people giving their time, and we urgently need more people to volunteer at competitions.
The need is significant. We cannot run the full competition program without sufficient support, and a shortage of volunteers can mean that activities such as judging cannot go ahead. Judging allows students the opportunity to discuss their designs and their engineering process, meaning that active judging is arguably the most important learning that comes from participating in this program. This also limits the opportunities available to students to qualify for the National Championships, when they have worked so hard to prepare.
You do not need to be a robotics expert to contribute. Please get in touch if you could assist with setting up, packing down, helping the event run smoothly, or learning more about a judging role.
If you are able to help at an upcoming event, please contact me at
7918-dl-Robotics@schools.vic.edu.au. We are very grateful to the families already contributing and would warmly welcome some additional hands.
We look forward to seeing what our teams achieve in the remaining competitions this year!