In just its second year, the Estancia High School robotics team took a giant step, finishing third in the state competition to earn a trip to Dallas, Texas, at the end of the month for a regional competition.
“I was just super proud of them,” said coach Jaime Silva, who teaches the school’s Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics. “Of course the goal for us was to give the kids a really great experience and have them learn a lot. I knew they definitely could do well. As a coach, that was more the experience I wanted them to have.”
Taking it a step farther was just a bonus, said Silva, who is helped by fellow teacher Maria Chavez.
“The winning was really the cherry on top. It allows them to realize they made a really good product and that their hard work really did pay off,” she said. “I’ve seen some of these kids step out of their comfort zone for an important part of the work and they were happy to do that.”
And experiencing their reaction upon learning they had advanced was priceless.
“When they found out they were third, they screamed,” Silva said. “Some of them were crying. It was great to see. They were really like a miniature family.”
The competition is part of the Boosting Engineering Science & Technology program, a six-week crash course in robotics for middle school and high school students. Estancia competed for points against about 20 other schools in a variety of tasks, including Notebook, Marketing Presentation, Spirit & Sportsmanship, Exhibit & Interviews, and Robot Performance.
The teams were working toward the theme for this year, “Incision Decision,” in which robots aid surgeons in medical procedures.
“Basically, you get a pile of scrap; plywood, nuts and bolts and motors and you have to build and program the robot to compete the tasks,” Silva said.
Estancia‘s result was called “Dr. Do-Little, because with the help of our robot your doctors have to do little,” she said.
Advancing as a team was a remarkable performance as the schools regardless of student population all competed in one class. Additionally, this was Estancia’s second year of competition and just six students participated last year.
Senior Amber Mayberry was one of those returning veterans and was overjoyed to have earned a chance to advance.
“It’s so cool, especially being a senior and it’s my last year being able to do this,” she said. “It was such a sad thought that this was the last time I’ll ever be able to do this competition so being able to go further, it’s really big to have the opportunity to keep going even after the initial competition and to move on to the next round of competition. It helps a lot that it proves our hard work, it pays off.”
This year’s squad was pulled from STEM classes for freshmen and sophomores so that it greatly expanded the pool of students who could be involved to 18, 11 of whom will be heading to Dallas for the regional Nov. 30-Dec. 2.
The success piqued the interest of other students around school and participants even went to the middle and elementary schools to discuss the project.
“We had a lot of kids, since we came back from the competition, ask about, being in STEM,” Silva said. “And we presented to the middle school and elementary school to get them more interested in BEST. A lot of the elementary kids really had a lot of questions. They were like celebrities for awhile.”
One of the interesting parts of the project is it brought together students with a wide background of experience – or lack thereof.
Mayberry, for instance, said last year when it started, she had never used a power tool before.
“It was the first time I ever used a drill. I remember, me and my friend, we broke one of the drill bits. We were so upset because thought we couldn’t do that.”
But junior Justice Chavez, who lives on a farm outside of Estancia, said he used to doing projects around the property so this was just an extension of that experience.
“Honestly, I loved it,” he said. “It was great. To start off, they send you a big package with a bunch of junk like wood, metal, plastics, all just sitting back there in the beginning. It so much enjoyment to build something from the ground up with everyone. I really loved every second of it.”
It was opportunity an to bond with a disparate group of classmates and also to grow into being a leader, Chavez said.
“I was one of the few who had done most of the things we have done here but it was a pretty surreal experience,” he said. “There were all walks of life from kids growing up doing things like this to kids who have never touched tools before. And seeing how far everyone has come to now we’re at the point where they can just pick up a tool and start using it. It’s been crazy to how far everybody has come with their skills.”
The team came together so well that Dr. Do-Little was one of the few robots at the state competition that did not require on-site repairs, Chavez said
“We didn’t have anything break or malfunction,” he said. “It did make us feel a sense of pride in our work. We put in a lot of time to build it and it worked.”