New this year in the St. Johns Middle School is a robotics team. Springing from one of the new electives (also about robotics), the team began in August with just a handful of students who stayed after school a few times each week to learn, work on robots, and prepare for competition.
St. Johns Robotics’ very first competition, Robo-Thrasher 1, took place yesterday at the Thrasher-Horne Center with 16 teams competing. Rather than bestowing awards for first place, second place, etc., in keeping with robotics tradition the First Lego League Robotics competition gave out atypical awards. “I’m so proud of the robotics team for winning the Core Values Award,” said team co-sponsor Mrs. Wagstaff. “The robotics league’s core values are innovation, impact, inclusion, discover, teamwork, and fun. Throughout the season, these students have consistently demonstrated these core values, and we are so happy that the judges at the competition saw the same thing.”
Additionally, while only three teams advance to the next round, St. Johns Robotics earned an "alternate bid" to the regional tournament, a completely unexpected honor for this brand-new team. “It's hard to believe that five months ago, not a single one of these kids could program a robot at all,” concluded Wagstaff.
Congratulations to St. Johns Robotics team members:
- Hadi Basil
- Westin Cowherd
- Caroline Burson
- Adrian Heinrichs
- Nathan Terry
- Reagan Wagstaff
- Addison Wagstaff
Congratulations, Spartans!
