Three Schools, One Team: Northern Moore Middle FTC Team

If you’ve been keeping up with the Moore County EV3 Robotics Competitions for the past few years then you’d know that the Northern Moore Area middle schools are a force to be reckoned with.  In fact, Westmoore Elementary has won first place in the middle school competition for the past two years.  With the increase in student success in our local competitions and the continuous development of their computer programming skills, six of our Northern Moore Area middle school students will be taking their talents to the next level in robotics, First Tech Challenge (FTC).

For this post, guest bloggers and Robo Colts team members Lindy Wiseman (Westmoore), Annievette Camcho (Elise), and River Seawell (Highfalls) share their FTC journey so far. 

Team #13780 Robo Colts is a rookie FTC Team consisting of students in 6th, 7th and 8th grade.  Our team is a combined team of three students from Elise, two students from Highfalls K-8, and one student from Westmoore K-8, all located in the Northern Moore area of Moore County Schools.  All club members have at least two years of experience with Lego EV3 Robotics and have competed in the Moore County Schools robotic competitions.  

In FTC,  we work as a team to build and make modifications to the programming and structure of the robot.   The most challenging thing about FTC is coming up with new ideas to fix problems.  Since we come from three different schools, transportation to the meetings has also been challenging.  Luckily, our team members from Westmoore and Highfalls were able to ride the bus to Elise with the athletic teams, but if there was no sports practice, then we wouldn’t have transportation, and that was very frustrating.     

Our first practice was on October 17th.  We practiced once a week and sometimes twice a week if we had transportation.  We competed in Moore County School’s Winter Warriors competition on December 15th.  With only a couple of month’s to build a robot, learn how to program it, and learn how to drive it, we felt nervous and unsure of how we would do in the competition.

On the day of the competition, we did not feel confident because we were competing against people who have been in FTC for a couple of years and had more experience than us. During the interview, we were nervous about speaking in front of the judges, but we were confident in our engineering notebook and our robot design.

When we started the competition we felt discouraged because our controller broke and our robot started acting up.  Luckily, we were able to borrow a controller from another team.  When we had our first round, we started feeling more confident because we were able to successfully stack multiple glyphs. As the rounds went on we felt even more confident because we continued to do well, and we were even the first team to successfully accomplish autonomous mode, which is where the robot drives itself according to code written by our team programmers Lindy and Alex.  From this competition we learned that it takes a lot of teamwork to be successful.

A big part of FTC is gracious professionalism.  Gracious professionalism is a way of doing things that value others, respects individuals as well as the community, it also communicates and encourages high-quality work. At Winter Warriors we demonstrated gracious professionalism by helping another team find the parts they needed when their robot malfunctioned. We learned from other teams that we need to have a diverse skill set within our own team. An example of this would be that our programmers could also drive the robot, and the drivers would be able to program. As a young team, we enjoyed competing with older students that we could learn from.

The competition was very close, and we were excited to be one of the two teams competing in the championship round! The final round was very close, and our team and our alliance, Union Pines High School were one point away from first place! When the winners were announced, we were were very surprised to be named the winners of the Think Award, the award for best interview, engineering notebook, and overall gracious professionalism!

On Saturday, January 27th we will compete in the NC FTC Qualifier in Durham.  We are most looking forward to getting to meet other teams and see their techniques with their robot.  This may be our first year of FTC but we are confident in ourselves as well as our team. No matter what happens at the competition we will always be there to support our team as well as others.

We have enjoyed participating in FTC this year, and we are thankful for receiving the FTC Rookie Grant that provided the funding for our robot. Being on this team has allowed us to build friendships with our teammates from other schools, as well as learn more about the importance of working together.  We are thankful for this opportunity and cannot wait to get to work for next year!

-Lindy, Annie, River

The Robo Colts members with the Think Award: River Seawell, Alex Simpson (Elise), Lindy Wiseman, Neil Seawell (Highfalls), Caleb Sexton (Elise), Annievette Camcho.

The Northern Moore Middle Robo Colts are coached by DIFs Will Allred and Carrie Robledo.  For more information about FTC, check out their website: https://www.ncfllandftc.com/what-is-firstreg-tech-challenge.html

Make sure to follow me on Twitter (@carrierobledo) for updates on Saturday’s competition!

-Carrie

School Year in Review: 2016-17 Edition

As the school year winds down and summer plans begin to take form, I want to take a few minutes and reflect on some of the great things that have happened this year.

Engineering Thread

• Before students returned in August, teachers were beginning to prep for the upcoming year.  Teacher leaders in Moore County met with Curriculum Specialists to develop our Engineering Thread in K-5 classrooms.

CyberPatriot

• Early in the school year, our high school CyberPatriot Teams began the qualifying rounds for the State and National rounds of the competition that puts students in the place of newly hired IT professionals managing the network of small local businesses.  One Union Pines CyberPatriot team received a State award for advancing to the 3rd Round.  

Winter Warriors

• Before Christmas break, our middle and high school FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Robotics teams competed in a local warm-up called Winter Warriors.  This event was hosted by Union Pines High School and was a great measuring stick for future FTC events.  Robotics teams were able to practice their robots and programming on the actual Velocity Vortex playing field they would eventually see at Trinity High School in Durham, NC in January.  

NCCAT

• In January, the DIF team traveled east to Ocracoke for a Team Planning Session at the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching.  While we were there we planned out our Spring activities (digital learning showcase, NCTIES presentations, elementary and middle school robotics events, STEM Camp).  

FTC Robotics

• On January 28th, Moore County Schools took 7 FTC Teams to Trinity High School of Durham and Chapel Hill to compete at a Regional Qualifier event.  Our teams were pitted against 15 other teams from around the state in an attempt to qualify for the State level Robotics Competition.  

NCTIES

• In March, the North Carolina Technology In Education Society (NCTIES) had its annual conference in Raleigh at the Convention Center.  This is always a great learning experience as we get to meet with colleagues to share ideas about how to effectively use technology and digital tools in the classroom.  It is worth noting this year that 8 DIF's presented at NCTIES on topics like Coding in Middle School Math, Sustainable STEM Camps, our Elementary Engineering Thread and using the app SeeSaw in Elementary Schools to create portfolios.  

Digital Learning Showcase

• In March, our students and teachers had an opportunity to show the community the great things they are doing in their classrooms with digital tools.  We had our 3rd annual Digital Learning Showcase at West Pine Elementary.  Teachers, students, parents and community members were invited to check out things like 3D printed fidget tools, custom built cell phone applications, programmed drones, play-dough pianos and robotic Lego arms.  

Elementary Robotics Showcase

• A few weeks ago, May 12th, we held our 3rd Elementary Robotics Showcase at Pinecrest High School.  The event has grown tremendously since our fist elementary robotics event held at Sandhills Farmlife in 2015.  Students had to navigate terrains that depicted different cities around the United States but programming for different turns and objectives throughout the unknown landscapes.  We also opened up our Elementary Robotics Showcase to other districts in our Region with Scotland County sending several teams the following day on Saturday.  

Middle School Robotics Competition

• The following Friday, May 19th, we had our 2nd Middle School Robotics Competition.  This year's competition provided opportunities for students to program robots to throw a football, pull a weighted sled, measure area of a building and traverse terrain with various obstacles.  The middle school event was opened up to other schools in our region the following day as Scotland County schools brought 5 teams to the Saturday event.  

STEM Camp and Advanced Robotics Camp

• STEM Camp will be our next big thing in the district.  This year's STEM Camp will be held at New Century Middle School.  There are two, 1-week camps (June 19-22 and June 26-29).  This year we are partnering with the Moore County Airport to have an Aviation Theme culminating with the opportunity for campers to fly for free at the conclusion of camp on each Thursday.  STEM Camp filled up at a record pace this year with over 280 applicants in the first week.  
• This year is a first for our Advanced Robotics Camp (ARC).  This camp will run during the first week simultaneously with our June 19-22 STEM Camp and will focus on preparing students for the FTC Robotics use in secondary schools.  The ARC is open to rising 8-10 grade students and still has a few open spots.  If you are interested in attending the Advanced Robotics camp please email me at jcallahan@ncmcs.org. 

As we wind down (or wind up) for summer, it should not go unnoticed that our schools are in a dire financial situation.  With the cuts that have been proposed, these events listed above will certainly be affected in some fashion.  The support staff that makes things like this possible are vital in sustaining them.  I feel like the people that will read this article already know about the great things teachers and students are doing in the district.  My hope is that this article reaches those that do not know about all of the great things Moore County Schools students are achieving.  My hope is that at least one person reads this article and thinks "We have to fully fund our schools".  My hope is that people realize that Moore County children are our greatest investment.  So I ask of you, share this article with others so the hard work our teachers, students and support staff get the notoriety they deserve.  Share this article so we can let the community know what our students are capable of when they are funded.  Share this article to be part of the solution.  

Tyler Callahan

Digital Integration Facilitator

@STEM_TC

jcallahan@ncmcs.org

Regional Robotics Competition

Moore County was well-represented on January 16 at Cardinal Gibbons High School for the first FTC Regional Robotics Qualifier of the season.  All three high schools (North Moore, Union Pines and Pinecrest) and one middle school (New Century) fielded a team of students that had constructed a TETRIX robot that attempted to score points in the RES-Q Challenge playing field (video below).  FIRST Tech Challenge teams are challenged to design, build, program and operate robots to play a floor game in an alliance format (FTC Website).

In preparation for the event, students had to build their robot from a bucket of parts, motors and wheels.  Once the robot was built, they programmed the robot using the MIT App Inventor Software.  Their apps were uploaded to ZTE Cell Phones and paired up with remote controllers.  

The teams had a blast trying to push debris, rescue mountain climbers, climb a 'mountain' and the ultimate challenge - "Hang from the Mountain Top".  

North Moore Team

New Century Team

Pinecrest Team

Union Pines Team

Twenty three teams from across the state attended the event trying to conquer the course.  While none of the teams qualified for the state tournament at this qualifying event, each team left with lessons learned and experiences that will last a lifetime.  We are appreciative to the Public Education Foundation of Moore County and the teachers, coaches, students and parents for providing this opportunity.  

RES-Q Challenge Course

I want to also give a special thanks to Digital Integration Facilitator Lee Ann Holmes for all her help and hard work that made this a success.  She is a Robotics Rockstar!

Tyler Callahan

Digital Integration Facilitator

@STEM_TC