Photos courtesy of the Seaford School District
It’s almost competition season in eighth grade robotics classes at Seaford Middle School. After months of learning how to build and program robots, students are now working in groups to prepare for robot battles that will close out the semester.
Eighth graders, from left, Gabriella Zanazzi, Natalie Rappa, Lilah Posporelis and Ellie O’Rourke drive their robot to see if they programmed the correct movements.
Technology teacher Matthew Dolan explained that two robots will compete at a time on a playing field. The robots will have to knock down a tray, which will scatter a bunch of rings that can be gathered up and put through a goal post to earn points. Blue and green rings gain points, while red rings lose points so teams can try to reduce their opponents’ score in the two-minute challenges.
Paul DiBlasi, left, Christian Sanders, center, and Christian Fara formed a team that worked on building and programming a robot.
Each robot includes a claw so students can also earn points if their robots can climb a tower and hang from a yellow bar. The young engineers will continue working over the next few weeks before the competitions begin in January.
John Sampogna and Hayden Lowinger worked together to make sure they were using the right pieces to construct their robot.
Eighth graders are using Vex robotics kits, which include all of the building pieces and a digital instruction manual, and they are using their knowledge from the course to program all of the movements. Mr. Dolan said that this culminating activity emphasize strategizing and teamwork through fun and friendly competition.
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