DANVILLE – Students as young as 9 years old have been recognized for their engineering skills in Danville.
Danville Elementary School started a robotics team in August 2021, which gained the interest of approximately 40 students in fourth through sixth grades. Some of these students are bound for state-level competition.
Danville uses the VEX IQ Ecosystem, which includes STEM hardware and provides professional development, curriculum and support for educators, gifted teacher and robotics coach Shelley Langdon said.
A couple of years ago, Danville tried to start a robotics team using Wonder Robotics, which involves virtual competitions. But Langdon said students wanted to meet new people and compete against other schools in-person.
“So, right before COVID hit, we decided that we were going to switch to VEX next year … unfortunately that whole next year there was nothing,” Langdon said. “We couldn’t do anything because of all the COVID restrictions.
“So, this year ended up being our first year.”
Danville’s squad competed in its first VEX Robotics tournament at the Pioneer Classic in Elyria earlier this winter. Students are broken up into smaller teams for competitions, and the performance of one of its teams — which includes Brooklyn Ashman, Kayden Blackshear, Evan Crider, and Maycee Samples — qualified for state.
This team will go up against other districts in Ohio March 5 at the Marion County Fairgrounds and Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Through the program Danville uses, its team competes in “VEX IQ Challenge Pitching In.”
This competition entails programming robots to compete in teamwork matches, requiring collaboration to score points, as well as a robot skills challenge where individual robots try to score as many points as possible.
Some of these matches are driver-controlled, whereas others test programming skills with the robots operating autonomously.
Brooklyn Ashman, 12, will be the driver in the state competition on Saturday.
Ashman said learning to drive the robot took a while, as the team had to learn to build the robot before getting into driving logistics.
Ashman had participated in the Wonder program Danville used before the pandemic, but this is Brooklyn’s first year driving robots, as Wonder had been fully online.
“It was really intense,” Ashman said of her first competition this winter. “All eyes are on you.”
Ashman is hopeful for some short-term success at Saturday’s competition but plans to be involved for the long haul.
“I want to continue doing robotics if they continue offering it,” Ashman said, “and I’m really into doing engineering when I’m older.”
Maycee Samples, 11, is also a part of the team headed to state Saturday.
Samples has helped with building the robot but her main role Saturday will be serving as the journalist. Samples has kept an engineering notebook, keeping track of everything the team has done at practices.
She said she does not feel as much pressure about the state competition as she expects the drivers do, since her work is largely complete.
Samples said she has enjoyed learning about robotics but having her friends also on the team has made her participation all the more worthwhile.
“I also like being with my friends,” Sample said. “We talk a lot, but we get work done.”
While not all Danville robotics students will compete at the state level, others were able to gain experience through the regional competition in Elyria, such as Lucas Parrish, 12.
Parrish joined the robotics program because he had been teaching himself to code and wanted to further develop his skills, which he’s been able to do this year.
When asked about the main things he has learned since joining, he also highlighted communication and teamwork.
“I’ve learned how people should really work together,” Parrish said.
Parrish most enjoys driving the robots in competitions, he said.
“What you can make it do is hilarious,” Parrish said about the robot, specifically mentioning he has learned how to make it spin around.
Parrish plans to continue participating in robotics throughout his education, and is looking forward to participating in more competitions for years to come.
While students such as Parrish joined the team with prior robotics knowledge, Langdon said students do not have to have to have any previous experience with robotics in order to join.
“It’s totally for anybody who is interested,” Langdon said. “We let anybody who signed up join.”
Langdon said she also did not have a background in robotics before she began leading Danville’s team. She has learned through online resources and alongside her students.
“Everything has been new and exciting this year,” she said.
