Jefferson Central School Students Score in Robotics Competition

JEFFERSON — An exciting new Robotics program is underway at Jefferson Central School! The 7th grade class has been working hard since October familiarizing themselves with the VEX IQ robots and coding platform. In November, they started to apply this knowledge to the Rapid Relay game. They were divided into two teams, the Red team and the White team, and have worked tirelessly to practice and work out the bugs in their bots. 

Accompanied by their instructors, Jefferson teachers Lydia Roder and Kyra McKissick, the students competed at this year’s VEX Robotics Competition on February 8, in Liverpool, NY. The students were challenged to build a robot to compete in the Rapid Relay, this year’s competition game. The competition involves three tasks played throughout the day that contribute to the final score of each team. The first task has teams randomly paired up to score goals, the next task involves each team attempting to score goals, and the final task has the teams coding their robot to score goals autonomously (self-driving). 

The Robo-Hawks White team won the Think Award which recognizes the most effective and consistent use of coding techniques and programming design. This award qualifies the team for the State competition on March 5th! 

The Robo-Hawks Red team won the Judges Award which allows the judges to recognize a standout team for a few reasons including overcoming a challenge or obstacle and achieving a goal. 

The Robo-Hawks exceeded all expectations with both teams qualifying for state championships and will leave bright and early on March 5th to compete once again at the SRC Arena in Syracuse for State Championships!

From left to right: Jadynn All, Elise DeFrancis, Hailey VanZandt, Aubrey Hotaling, Alexis Blumberg, Travis LaPrade