The robotics team at Eastern Washington Middle School is called the Digital Dragons. This talented team builds and designs their own robotic creations. They compete with other schools on a game platform to pick up blocks and places them in containers on three of the corners on a 6 ft. x 8 ft. boxed-in area.
Jake Grable practices running the course with his robot.The 5th thorough 8th grades have teams of either four or five members. There are two drivers that steer the robots with a hand-held control; tag team after the first driver gets thirty seconds. They have five seconds for the hand-off to the other team driver. There are at least two students who are builders and two students who are drivers. Their robots can also be programmed by computer to run the course themselves.
The blocks picked up count as points and count more when all like blocks are placed in the same corner bin. The Digital Dragons the sixth graders won the Excellence Award this year at Immanuel Lutheran School in Seymour to qualify for a trip to state finals at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on March 23.
Last year the 7th grade team, Outside the Box, qualified for the Indiana State Competition by winning the Excellence Award. This team was also was invited to participate at the World’s Competition in Dallas, Texas.
Vex IQ Robotics equipment is used. Material to build a robot costs about $600; field or platform is $330 and the elements are $134.00. Elements change every year requiring the students to redesign the robots.
The teacher for this after school event is Rosa Snapp.
Taking a break from practice are (from left) Elliana Brewer, Jake Grable and Kristin Brawner.Practice is Monday thorough Thursday, with different grades practicing on different days.
Mothers helping Snapp on Tuesday were Amanda Grable and Whitney Smith. They were busy resetting the platform and assisting and encouraging team members.
Members of the Digital Dragons present were drivers Elliana Brewer and Jake Grable with builder Kristin Brawner. They have a designated classroom for the robotics.
On the day of this interview, fifth grade students present were Prater White, Carys Withrow, Zeb Smith, Isaiah Snapp.