BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
KEYSTONE HEIGHTS— Students from Keystone Heights Elementary, McRae Elementary and Keystone Heights High competed in a district robotics competition on Jan. 11.
Keystone Elementary Coach Eric Scamahorn said he is in his fifth year coaching fourth, fifth and sixth graders.
“This is done through FIRST LEGO league,” he said. “It promotes engineering, problem solving, critical thinking and teamwork.
All the robots are made with LEGO blocks and the machines must be pre-programmed to performed specific tasks.
Scamahorn said his team this year consisted solely of rookies.
“The only student we had with experience didn’t get to go to the competition,” he said. “Everyone else was brand new.”
“We have them program the robots to do these tasks on the challenge board,” he added, “like raise a lever, move a box, things like that.”
Teams were also judged on how they implemented FIRST LEGO’s core values like teamwork, inclusiveness and discovery.
This year, judges also asked students to make a presentation in a research project: the transportation of cargo.
“Our kids tried to find a solution to stolen packages,” Scamahorn said.
The coach said the goals of the competition are difficult.
“This team I have this year is driven and dedicated,” he said. “They really try to find a solution whenever they are presented with a problem. They work hard on it.”
Neither of the elementary schools placed in the competition, but the high school’s team of Matthew Golden, Kaden Gilland, Jordan Folsom and Cali Chamberlain made it to the top 10 in their division.
