Mission, Texas- Mission High School will be sending a robotics team to the Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) State Championship Robotics Competition to be held in Duncanville, Texas on May 2. MHS Team 4 earned the spot at the state meet by placing second at the TCEA Area 1 robotics competition held this past weekend.
The members of the team are (pictured left to right): Brandon Flores, Ashley Bennett, Janeth Gonzalez, Karen Blanco. They are competing in the Advanced Invention category.
Another team from MHS placed in the top three at the Area 1 competition. The Maroon Robo-Rangers placed third in the Advanced Arena competition. Members of the Maroon Robo-Rangers are: Maximo Briones, Enrique Cantu, Alejandro Martinez.
Teams that placed first and second at the Area 1 competition in their categories automatically advance to the state competition. Teams that finish a close third place can also advance to state pending a wildcard invitation by TCEA.
The Area 1 consists of seven counties that include: Cameron, Hidalgo, Jim Hogg, Starr, Web, Willacy, and Zapata. There were a total of 27 school districts and 21 charter schools in the competition. The Area 1 robotics competition is one of the largest in the state with a total of 274 teams participating in four different competitions and levels. The teams compete in advanced or intermediate divisions. In each of those divisions, teams can compete in the invention contest or the arena contest.
In the Invention contests, teams of two to four students create and develop a robotic invention to demonstrate a solution for a problem of their choice. This showcases research, robot performance, robot design, marketing, and presentation skills for a panel of judges. Students approach their problem as a real team of engineers working together to solve their problem using the engineering design process.
The Arena contest is a more prescribed problem contest. Teams of two to four students receive a set of challenge rules and specifications designed around a theme that varies from year to year. This year’s theme is “Food Frenzy.” Students had to design and innovate a robot using the EV3 and NXT platforms of Lego Mindstorm to accomplish a number of objectives. This entailed months of preparation, brainstorming, designing, and programming. The challenge is designed around the theme of growing and harvesting food. The team’s robot had to strategically be programmed to perform six tasks on the challenge field, autonomously. They had to: erect a fertilizer tower, trigger a growth spurt, irrigate garden seeds, harvest food, collect food pods, and deliver the food and pods to the barn.
# # #