Robotics tournament at Pulaski Elementary puts student tech to the test

Feb. 5—What's more exciting than watching a contest involving robots? A contest involving robots that is only resolved after a series of multiple tie-breakers.

That was the case at the VEX IQ Robotics Competition held Saturday at Pulaski Elementary School, where teams from around the state — including those made up of students from local schools here in Pulaski — put their tech to the test.

Pulaski and Burnside Elementary Schools teamed up to host the event, but "we have schools from Louisville, from Georgetown, from Lexington — they're from lots of different places," said Natasha Craft, Robotics Coach at Pulaski Elementary and Project Lead the Way STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) Lab instructor, who noted that there were 25 teams in total. Those included two teams each from Pulaski Elementary and Southern Middle School, and four from Burnside Elementary.

Students spend months building and perfecting the use of simple robots. Don't picture C-3PO or Robby the Robot from "Forbidden Planet" but rather something more the size of a small house pet — designed in this case to complete the task of picking of blocks and carrying them from one place to another with an excavator-like design. That action represents the specific "game" students were tasked with addressing in this season of competition and tournament circuit.

"They have to be able to pick up blocks on the field, and get them into corner towers," said Craft. "They get points for every block they get in the tower. If they get it beyond a certain level, they get more points. If all (the blocks) are the same color, they get a different amount of points. There are different ways to score. They design a robot that will do as much of that as possible."

There were three different types of competitions where teams can earn points — a skills challenge, where a team of two students drive the robot "truck" by themselves; a similar test where the students program the robot to drive itself; and a teamwork competition with two robots on the field together trying to score as many points as possible, with students from different teams and even different schools working together.

The winners at the local competition qualified for the VEX IQ state level in Shelbyville on March 2, and state winners will go on to the World's round in Dallas, Texas.

The students build the robots from scratch, explained Craft, using robotics pieces from the VEX IQ company; "The robots are not built to start with; they're just in thousands of little bitty pieces, all different sizes and shapes," she said. "When (students) decide what kind of robot they need to solve the problem they're trying to solve, they actually have to put the pieces together to build the robot."

The competition also involved judges from the community, including entities like TTAI and Pulaski County Government, who interviewed every team individually and helped choose standouts in elements like design.

Top 10 teams made it into the teamwork final, and there was a three-way tie at 79 points after each pairing of those teams took their turn. A tiebreaker effort followed, which resulted in another draw, again 79 points, and the next attempt to solve the dilemma, which considered when teams stopped driving, was also a tie. Ultimately, seeding entering the finals was used to determine the winning alliance, and that was one between Burnside Elementary and Stamping Ground Elementary School in Scott County.

Burnside Elementary (known as "Burnside Bots") had four teams going into the final round, and Pulaski Elementary ("Pulaski Blue") had one. Both schools were involved in the final tiebreaker process.

"The kids follow the design process and they design, build, program, run out their strategies — it takes months and months of hard work," said Burnside coach Amanda Cox, who described the materials students use as a "sophisticated LEGO-type system" that uses motors and sensors and other technologies.

She added, "At Burnside, we have Project Lead the Way (a STEM education-focused non-profit organization) as a special area class, so all kids have robotics classes, and then anyone who is more interested can try out for the robotics team."

Not only did Burnside win the Teamwork challenge, they also won the Robot Skills portion, as well as the Design and Excellence Awards. The Judges Award went to Creekside Elementary in Scott County.

Cox was happy for Burnside to come out as winners, calling the experience "amazing" for the team and students.

"They were excited just to make it to finals," she said. "That was a big deal."

Several Burnside students spoke to the Commonwealth Journal after the event Saturday. Fourth-grader Carter Cox enjoyed the experience because "that was my first time ever winning a competition like this," he said.

Fifth-grader Trevor Casada talked about the difficulty of picking up the blocks with the robot, saying, "You just never know what might happen. Any situation could occur and you just have to act quickly."

Fourth-grader Kyleigh Davis said the most fun aspect of the competition is driving the robot "and working with your teammates." Meeting and making friendships with kids from other schools is a fun part of the experience, the Burnside students also noted.