Paducah, KY (April 1, 2016) – Eighty competitors vied for top honors at the second annual Robot Extreme Challenge (RCX) recently held at West Kentucky Community and Technical College March 19.
The competition was divided into high school and middle and elementary school levels with the Calloway County SPRACx winning the high school division. In the middle school division, the McCracken County’s Circuit Smart 4-H and St. Mary’s Circuit Breakers teams won first and second, respectively. In the elementary division, the Lady Lyons from Lyon County took first place followed by the St. Mary Robotic Masters in second place.
Other participating teams represented were from Heath, Lone Oak and Murray middle schools and McNabb Elementary.
The 2016 RCX competition was built around the “Avalanche Rescue” theme. Students simulated saving stranded skiers, saving Pine Cone Mountain Lodge from another avalanche, and setting off explosions to create “controlled” avalanches.
“This competition honors preparation, grit, teamwork, creativity and critical thinking,” said Bill Kunnecke, program director of the WKCTC’s science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) initiative. “The rules for building a team’s robot (using LEGO pieces only) and missions are open enough such that there are multiple solutions for completing missions. Like chess, students opening moves are up to them,” said Kunnecke.
The Kentucky-based competition was created to help students build skills in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and involved participants preparing a LEGO EV3 Robot to complete as many as 15 missions. Students pre-programmed the robot to do one or more missions at a time and completed as many missions as they could in three minutes. Student teams got four tries to gather as many points from a run, and the top score from any of the runs was used to determine winners of each level.
For a complete list of upcoming STEAM and summer camp opportunities including various summer camps, visit https://issuu.com/jblythe0001/docs/communityeducation/1.
Summer classes at WKCTC begin in May. Call 1-(855) GO-WKCTC or visit westkentucky.kctcs.edu for program offerings.