Roosevelt Junior High has become a mecca for high competing robotics with a group of 7th grade girls leading the way. 18 students making up 5 teams are traveling to the
2018 VEX Robotics World Championships in Louisville, Kentucky
next month and it’s as big of a deal as it sounds. Roosevelt Junior High’s ‘Roughrider Robotics’ had 7 teams that made it to the state finals at Davis High School earlier this month. With only 6 spots eligible to go to the world championships from the state of Utah, Roosevelt Jr. High secured 4 of those spots and later their alternate team took a 5th spot. When asked the key to their success, team advisor Joe Smyly gave major credit to the students. “This is very student driven,” shares Smyly. “The students do all the design work. They build the robots plus program and drive them on a course. Every year the course changes. In competition they also have to give presentations and have a design notebook.” This year’s group started working on their robots in August and traveled to competitions from November through February. Making it to the VEX Robotics World Championships is highly competitive, drawing teams from 40 countries across 6 continents and Smyly makes it clear that one of his teams in particular is expected to do well. “Our team ‘Cybersaurus’ is an all girls team of 7th graders and they are qualified and ready to compete with the best in the world. Robotics is one of the areas of STEM that attracts girls,” shares Smyly. “Of my 7 teams, 5 teams are captained by girls. I’m really proud of all of our team members. It’s remarkable what they are doing.” The group travels to Kentucky for competition
April 25th through the 28th
and they are busy fundraising for the trip. Anyone interested in donating can email Mr. Smyly at
jsmyly@dcsd.org
.
