Area junior highs grab robotics honors, advance to state

By Gary Raham
Wellington Correspondent

Out of 54 schools competing in the regional robotics tournament held at Poudre High School on Nov. 15, Wellington Junior High placed first with the coveted Director's Award that recognizes the most outstanding research, performance, teamwork and technical understanding.

Cache La Poudre Junior High also placed highly in all aspects of the contest, earning ninth place overall. Both teams advance to the championship tournament Dec. 13 at the Auraria Event Center, University of Denver.

Coach Bob Steketee for CLPJH and coaches Darel Emmot and Vicky Jordan for WJH all praised their students.

"I'm a hands-off coach," said Steketee, "and am really proud of all the work the kids did."

"It can be a challenge working with teens that have lots of other activities on their plates," Emmot said.

Jordan took pride that her students never got angry at each other and they knew when to take breaks and time-outs. New WJH competitor Jane Linde testified to the camaraderie of the group when she said, "I just like hanging out with these guys."

The other "guys" for Wellington included another newbie, Rachel Lemke, and three veterans from last year: Forrest Jordan, Alan Emmot and Josh Croak.

CLPJH had 14 participants, enough to form two teams - The Flaming Lava Lizards, who won top honors in the category of Innovative Robot Design, and the Polar Bear Pirates.

The theme this year was Climate Connections. The technical aspect of the competition involved programming robots to navigate a board and perform certain tasks. The Flaming Lava Lizards, for example, pushed cargo with a robot to a certain location, and then used a trap door device to dump the load. The Wellington team used sensors to follow the walls of the tournament table and light sensors to detect colored areas on the mat. Croak thought it was easier this year to design the computer programs to make things work.

The Wellington team identified Boxelder and Coal Creek drainage issues to focus on an important community problem dealing with the Climate Connection theme. They interviewed state climatologist Nolan Doesken, FEMA consultant Gary Gleason and Jeri Feil with the Boxelder Creek Regional Alliance to learn about flood control. They also discussed historical floods like the one that occurred in Wellington in 1904 with local expert William Schneider of Vestige Press. They all were fascinated to learn about flood dangers in creeks that are often dry ditches. In 1904, for example, well over a year's worth of normal rainfall fell in May.

To help communicate their knowledge, Jordan and Croak published an article in The Wellington newspaper. The team also contacted school and community members through flyers and e-mails and will soon have two PowerPoint presentations to share.

Students and coaches all agreed they put in a lot of work, but they got a rare opportunity to learn important things and communicate that knowledge to others. A quote attributed to Thomas Edison on coach Jordan's wall sums up their attitude nicely: "Opportunity is missed by most people because it usually comes dressed in overalls and looks like work."