LBPSB Students Showcase Their Skills at the 5th Annual Robotics Challenge
by Marilyn Santucci
On December 2nd, 130 students from 10 different schools made their way to Pierrefonds Community High School for the 5th annual robotics challenge.
Taking place inside PCHS’s library, students used LEGO® Education SPIKE™ Prime Sets for the event. Schools that participated included:
Dorval Elementary School
St. Charles Elementary School
St. Patrick Elementary School
Dorval Elementary School
Sir John Fisher Elementary School
Westpark Elementary School
John Rennie High School
Lasalle Community Comprehensive High School
Lakeside Academy
Pierrefonds Community High School
Westwood Senior High School
The day began with students dividing into 27 teams, each given a challenge to complete by 11:30 a.m. to move on to the next task. The first challenge required building a robot capable of carrying or pushing a weighted can up a ramp. Each can had a different weight, representing 100, 200, or 500 points. While some teams took longer than the allotted time to finish, it was announced in the afternoon that all schools had successfully completed the first challenge.
“I like robotics because it’s so cool how the robot goes forward, it turns, it goes backwards and it’s so cool that people (students) give it commands,” says Jackson Balio, a student who participated in the challenge.
Teams that completed the first challenge by 11:30 moved on to the next task: building a robot capable of pushing or carrying the weighted cans up the ramp, dropping them into a bucket, and returning down the ramp. This challenge proved difficult as students worked to code their robots for optimal performance, considering factors such as tire rotations, speed, weight, and sturdiness during the design process.
“Robotics is fun because you have to think about it before you start building and it’s really fun to put it all together and see what you made. If it doesn’t work, you have to redo it and see if it works that time!” says Chloe Chimbala, another student who took part in the challenge.
As the day progressed, judges walked around the room and announced that 8 teams had successfully completed the task before 2:30 p.m. These teams advanced to the final battle round, where they would compete against each other to see who could drop the most cans into the bucket and accumulate the most points. The teams were paired as follows:
Team 1 and 8
Team 2 and 7
Team 3 and 6
Team 4 and 5
After the 5-minute battle round, it was announced that Westwood Senior and Lasalle Community Comprehensive High School had won the challenge, bringing in 5600 points.
