First VEX Robotics experience for Saddle Mountain a near win
Ted Escobar/The Sun Tribune Alex Medrano practicing programming the robot for the challenge.
Ted Escobar/The Sun Tribune Left to right, Allessandro Maravilla, Sergio Leon, Brian Herrera and Carlo Ramirez program their robots.
Ted Escobar/The Sun Tribune The Saddle Mountain Elementary VEX Robotics club members pictured from left to right: 6th row - Albaro Gonzalez, Carlo Ramirez, Julian Paramo, Oscar Martinez, 5th row - Edgar Rangel, Brian Herrera, 4th row - Anthony Brown, Sergio Leon, Omar Ramirez. 3rd row - Jose Chavez, Alex Medrano. 2nd row - Alessandro MAravilla, Christopher Martinez. from row: Katie Ruiz, Cesar Ortiz (coach)
MATTAWA — Saddle Mountain Elementary couldn’t have come any closer to winning its first VEX Robotics Competition and still finish as the runner-up.
Competing at the Gear Up VEX IQ Tournament at Central Washington University on Dec. 10, Saddle Mountain A tied for first place.
The tie-breaker was prior event rankings. SME did not have any. It was relegated to second place. The SME B team finished in sixth place. SME A scored 37 points. SME B scored 21.
“Watching the team energy multiply as we scored high points throughout the challenges was one of the highlights of the whole event,” Advisor Cesar Ortiz said.
The competition consisted of three challenges. In the Robot Skills Challenge, one robot takes the field to score as many points as possible.
The Teamwork Challenge is an alliance of two robots under driver control working together in each match to score as many points possible. The Programming Skills Challenge involves one robot scoring as many points as possible autonomously.
This Saddle Mountain Elementary VEX IQ Robotics Club includes 18 Students. They meet every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 2:30-3:30.
“The robotics club supports the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) initiative as well as Math and Science in the classroom,” Ortiz said.
“The exposure to the event was by far the most valuable (aspect of our participation),” he said. “Students left (Ellensburg) with a new sense of understanding and motivation that will fuel the rest of the season and energize students at SME.”
“Bringing such opportunities to students in Wahluke will inspire them to pursue STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) learning and hopefully in the future STEM-related careers.”