NSU University School Viewpoint Spring 2018

teams presented their robots and research projects to a panel of judges, with the fifth-grade team receiving a nearly perfect score for their Core Values presentation. The third type of robotics offered, VEX IQ Robotics, is available to students in grades 3–5 and can be selected as an elective or as an after-school activity. Innovation Lab and Media teaching assistant Darren Stern, M.S., teaches both. “The interest in robotics has grown tremendously,” he said. ”This year alone we have about 140 students enrolled in the elective and 60 students in the after-school program, which is more than twice as many students as last year.” This year, students who chose to participate in robotics as an after-school activity had the opportunity to compete. Known collectively as the Shark Bots, students developed their own team names: Team Mercury, Vulcan VEX 5, and Shark Robots. They assigned roles based on their own interests, skills, and team needs. The teams have robot designers, programmers, an engineering notebook manager, a photographer/videographer, robot builders, a STEM research project manager, and robot drivers. Led by fourth-grade teacher Ana Rodriguez, M.S., and Stern, those students are following in the footsteps of their older counterparts in theMiddle andUpper School. “Participating in the Lower School VEX IQ Robotics program is the start of a natural progression through Middle and Upper School. Our students have the advantage of seeing the designated space where Middle and Upper School students build and perfect their robots and also have wonderful role models and mentors in the older students,” said Rodriguez. This fall, the Shark Bots competed in two VEX IQ robotics tournaments where teams were presented with theVEX IQRingmaster Challenge andused their game strategy, knowledge, and skills when building a robot that could best solve the challenge. Based on all of the teams’ previous successful results, the Shark Bots were invited to a VEX IQ robotics tournament called the RoboSLAM Championship, an invitation-only state and world spots qualifying event for elementary, middle, and upper schools. They competed in all categories, including driving skills challenges, team skills challenges, STEM Project, and the Design Notebook and placed 6th overall out of 32 top elementary teams from the region. Earlier in the season, thefifth-grade teamalso made the final round of 10 (out of 47 elementary and middle school teams) for their design engineering notebook and were praised by the judges for their outstanding work. The notebook is managed by one person who is responsible for meticulously documenting every piece of information as it pertains to the design of the robot in a daily log. “Our students demonstrated tremendous creativity, innovation, and teamwork, all leading to positive outcomes and impressive results. We are all incredibly excited for next year,” said Rodriguez. 6 Leila Cepeda and Tyler Greene teleoperate their armbot to complete the VEX IQ Ringmaster Challenge. From left, Téa Starks, Landan Kelly, David Palatnik, Eitan Peretz, Lawrence Jones Jr., Chanel Miller, Audrina Dimmer, and Xara Case of the fourth-grade FIRST LEGO League team show off their STEM Project prototype and Core Values poster. LOWER SCHOOL