For the second year in a row, Brentwood Academy’s Robotics Team, the Iron Eagles, won the VEX Robotics State Championship, held Saturday at McGavock High School, and will represent the state of Tennessee in April at the World Championships.
The VEX Robotics World Championships, presented each year by the Robotics Education and Competition (REC) Foundation, is a gathering of top robotics teams from around the world, celebrating their accomplishments and competing with and against the best of the best. The 2015
VEX Robotics World Championship will take place April 15-18, 2015, at the Kentucky
Exposition Center in Louisville, Kentucky, and will include top teams from over 400 VEX Robotics tournaments happening in cities around the world from June 2014 through March 2015. (For more information click on the 2015 VEX Robotics World Championship FAQ.)
Brentwood Academy entered six teams in the state tournament—three teams made up of middle school students and three teams made up of upper school students. In the final round, it was BA vs. BA (the A and B teams vs. the C and E teams) for the tournament title. The entire Iron Eagles team was also awarded the Sportsmanship Award. The “A” team earned the Programming Skill Champion award and was runner-up for the Driver Skills award. All teams are coached by BA physics teacher Wendy Stallings and Chris Allen.
“The REC Foundation recognizes that successfully preparing our children for the future global economy will require a strong understanding of science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” said Jason Morrella, President, REC Foundation. “Robotics engineering programs naturally engage and inspire students to pursue STEM subjects and careers and we are committed to providing them with high quality competition opportunities, like the VEX Robotics
Competition, to accommodate their growing interest.”
The REC Foundation seeks to increase student interest and involvement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by engaging students in hands-on, sustainable and affordable curriculum-based robotics engineering programs across the U.S. and internationally.
The REC Foundation develops partnerships with K-12 education, higher education, government, industry, and the non-profit community to achieve this work.
Each year VEX designs a new challenge with corresponding curriculum that students use to learn engineering skills, teamwork, collaboration, programming, project management and critical thinking. At the local and state tournaments, teams operate in head-to-head competition with the robots that they have spent months constructing and programming. The sport-like game they are competing in this year, titled “Skyrise,” consists of 44 cubes and skyrise sections that are used in a complex system of scoring on a customized playing field. Alliances are formed as the competition continues which results in additional opportunities for scoring points.
“I am certainly proud of the way our students presented themselves and BA at the competition,” said Stallings. “I am most proud of the way they took time to assist other teams who were new to the competition and having trouble with their robots. The Sportsmanship Award was really the one that meant the most to me.”
Learn more at www.RoboticsEducation.org and www.robotevents.com.
To see a documentary of the Iron Eagles’ journey to last year’s World Competition in Anaheim, CA, go to www.brentwoodacademy.com/robotics.
Founded in 1969, Brentwood Academy is a co-educational, independent, college preparatory school dedicated to nurturing and challenging each whole person—body, mind, and spirit—to the glory of God.
Iron Eagles Roster
9364A Team (senior and juniors) —World Competition Qualifier
Peter Richards
Noah Franks
Olivia Cook
9364B Team (sophomores)—World Competition Qualifier
Ross Kennedy
Cameron McAllister
Jack Knestrick
Will McClellan
9364C Team (freshmen) Nathan Springman
Lilly Adams
Sarah Edwards
Will Shipp
9364D Team (middle school) Garrett Holbert
Smith Collins
Jordan Wildman
Ashley Sheriff
9364E Team (middle school)
Andrew Byers
Jake Devereaux
Jackson Fuller
Nolan Rittiner
Samuel Robertson
9364F Team (middle school)
Spencer Aftab
Brock Powell
Matthew Lambreth
Hank Roberson
Thomas Clark
Warren McClellan