The St. Joseph Middle School robotics teams — Maize, Blue, and White — are home after a successful weekend competing in Howell. Volunteer coach Ben Baker tells us they took part in the Michigan FIRST Tech Challenge State Championships.
“The teams played well against the other groups,” Baker said. “The Maize team and the Blue team were chosen to be in the finals in separate divisions, and with that, the Maize team and our alliance partners were able to bring home the state championship.”
Baker says the teams all prepared for the competition separately, so they developed innovative solutions to the challenge.
“We had to pick up these small hexagons that they called pixels that were about two or three inches. They had to pick those up off the ground or from stacks and deliver those to the back of the field and place them on a backdrop.”
Baker says part of the challenge had the robots acting autonomously, while the students took over later.
This is the third year in a row the teams competed in the Michigan FIRST Tech Challenge State Championships. This wraps up their season.
Baker says competing in robotics teaches the students teamwork, engineering, problem solving, and professionalism.
Story via WSJM.com