For students Jake Ormand, Mallorie Gray, Rayne Barton and the remaining members of the Jackson Middle School LEGO Robotics team, a First LEGO League qualifier held at Chukker Creek Elementary School in Aiken in early December proved to be a baptism by fire into the burgeoning world of competitive robotics.
Competing in its first-ever event, the team had an impressive showing, falling just two points shy of advancing to state-level competition. The robotics team’s ability to even participate in the event reflected upon the hard work of the students during after school practice sessions, lots of behind-the-scenes effort on the part of Kishni Neville, the school’s STEM Coordinator and LEGO Robotics coach, and valuable partnerships with Savannah River Remediation and the Public Education Partners of Aiken County.
Representatives from Savannah River Remediation, which provided a generous donation of $2,000 to help fund the team’s start-up needs for equipment and competition, and PEP visited the school recently to check in on the team’s progress.
After receiving a detailed report on the purchase of equipment, which included “Challenge Sets” of various robotics parts and a large, competition-level table, and seeing a demonstration of the team’s creative capabilities, Savannah River Remediation’s Supply Chain Management Manager Ellen Hansmann came away with a newfound respect for the capabilities of the students on the team and the equipment they are able to work with.
“What these students have accomplished in such a short amount of time has been very impressive,” Hansmann stated. “The skills the students need in order to prepare for a LEGO robotics competition are really more complex than I had anticipated, and after seeing first-hand the capabilities of the tools the students are using and what they are able to accomplish with them is astonishing. For students at this age to be coding and programming at this level is just really impressive. It’s above and beyond anything my generation was able to experience, as far as this type of educational exposure. Education is the foundation for the next generation of our local community and for development of the future leaders of our country, so it’s really nice to be able to visit and see the great work that is going on here.”
“The students here at Jackson Middle STEM Magnet School have displayed some impressive knowledge and skill through their robotics program. Our local industry partners continue to raise the level of STEM engagement that we are able to provide in Aiken County and we are extremely grateful for their continued support,” commented Public Education Partners representative Diana Floyd.
Jackson Middle STEM Magnet School Principal Jason Holt says the $2,000 donation made by Savannah River Remediation will continue to reap rewards for the robotics team and provide for positive student outcomes away from the competition table for many years to come.
“This funding will help to impact our infusion of STEM into our instructional model. More specifically, the enhanced skill building of coding, collaboration, and robotics should build better science scores for our seventh- and eighth-grade students,” Holt explained. “Much of the vocabulary used in the robotics program coincides positively with the academic needs our students will need to develop for the next academic year. We also hope to see new gains in our student’s ability to complete school-wide projects related to our grade-level specific, project-based curriculum. We will also be tracking the attendance rate of robotics students as compared to previous years. With this initial donation, we are building the supply base necessary to be able to grow this program and impact even more students. We want to attract non-traditional engineering students and those students with an interest in robotics into the program.”
STEM Coordinator Kishni Neville says the competitive future of the school’s robotics team is extremely bright based upon what she experienced during the team’s first competitive season.
“As a team we talked about our core values and finding ways for each member to contribute, and the attitude of our team members was always that they wanted to find a place where they could best maximize their contribution to the team and provide the most value, and not necessarily participating only based on their personal interests,” Neville stated. “We plan to field three competitive teams next year.”
Students Jake Ormand and Mallorie Gray say their first taste of such an immersive robotics and engineering experience left them wanting even more.
“We are definitely excited to be able to have the opportunity to compete again,” Jake commented. “We are already ready to go for next year.”
“We really came together and it turned out great,” added Mallorie.
LINK TO DISTRICT PRESS RELEASE: 2017 PR JACKSON SRR ROBOTICS
CUTLINE: Pictured, from left, are Jackson Middle STEM Magnet School student and LEGO Robotics team member Rayne Barton, Savannah River Remediation Supply Chain Management Manager Ellen Hansmann, JMS student and LEGO Robotics team member Mallorie Gray, Jackson Middle School STEM Coordinator Kishni Neville, JMS student and LEGO Robotics team member Jake Ormand and Public Education Partners representative Diana Floyd.