Cyber Stangs VEX team in the newspaper!

[crazykid234]

VEX team 56 that Cyber Blue mentored is in the paper this week! You can read the article here
I'm afraid there was a little miscommunication, and the correspondent didn't get our third partner team 147. Extremely sorry !

Thanks to both our partners 147 and 34! You guys were awesome!\

here is the text for the article:

The middle school robotics team is hard at work. With their "Think-Create-Build-Amaze" slogan, they earned a fourth-place finish at a recent competition in St. Louis.
(Submitted photo)

A team of very creative and challenging students from Perry Meridian Middle School has just returned from a weekend of excitement in St. Louis, where some serious competition took place between 16 teams which had built robots to achieve prescribed tasks and goals.

This middle school team is an outgrowth of the high school program, receiving its inspiration and a lot of guidance from the PMHS Cyber Blue Robotics team.

In fact, 11 high school students have spent many hours after school with the 15 middle school students, providing suggestions and the benefit of their experience.

The final week was a daily grind in the afternoon and evening, making sure that everything worked as designed and was ready for competition.

Some students may work on the project as much as four or five hours each night during the six-week program.

The PMMS Cyber Stangs, a hybrid name derived from the Cyber Blue team and the PMMS Mustangs, utilizes the VEX Robotics Design System, which is available at Radio Shack stores.

The VEX slogan is "Think-Create-Build-Amaze." A student describes the program as

"sort of like an Erector Set, but way more."

The Lego program, which was previously at PMMS, is now being implemented in an elementary school.

The complete box of VEX materials which serves as a starter set is available for $299. Additional component parts are then available for much smaller amounts.

Fortunately, Rolls Royce and Allison Transmission have supported the program with funds and expertise at both the high school and the middle school.

Their support includes providing two or three volunteer engineers from their staff to serve as consultants and advisors during various phases of the projects at each level.

Cyber Blue also helps fund the Cyber Stangs robotic club. One of the Rolls Royce engineer consultants, David Kelly, was a member of the very first PMHS Cyber Blue team.

The Cyber Stangs came in fourth last weekend, during competition among 16 teams. Even more amazing is that 12 of those teams were from high schools. Their first-round loss was to the team which won in the final competition.

This marked the first time the Cyber Stangs had faced regional competition.

A primary goal in the competition is to teach the importance of teamwork and creativity, in addition to the variety of applications science and math have in our daily lives.

After the top four teams were determined, those teams formed alliances of two teams each, for the purpose of competing against each other in a two-round playoff.

The alliance of "Syntax Error" and "Contraption" won over the "Cyber Stang" and the "MiniStang" alliance.

The specific goal is to win a game which requires a robot to pick up racquet balls, carry them to designated sites, and score.

Competition began about noon Saturday, so the entire group left about 4 a.m. in order to arrive in time to be interviewed by the judges and prepare for competition. The interviews are regarded as a valuable phase in the total experience.

The teams in the winning alliance of the St. Louis competition will compete in the national competition, held in April at Atlanta.

Susan Frantsi, PMHS science department head, and Steve Taylor, PMHS math department head, serve as sponsors and advisors for the Cyber Stangs, working with students from both schools.

Previously, Frantsi taught science at the middle school and is encouraged by the fact that girls are now 50 percent of the middle school team.

According to Brian Clegg, a PMHS junior and lead mentor from the high school club, the main job is "to get them excited about engineering and science, and to get them to do as much of the work on their own as possible."

Clegg is currently enrolled in calculus, C++ programming and computer integrated manufacturing, and has been very interested in math and science since grades seven and eight.

He believes that both the engineering academy at PMHS and the Cyber Blue robotics team have contributed significantly to his interest and ability.

Added to that is a supportive family.

Brian's father, Dan, is a control systems engineer for Johnson Controls and mother Paula is a technology trainer for Perry Township Schools. Brian is considering both Purdue and Rose-Hulman as college possibilities.

Members of the VEX team and their area's of work are: website, Brice Brenne-man, Kelli Fultz and Kiatta Mar-shall; programming, Sarah Cow-en and Miranda Goelz; manufacturing, Aamena An-sari, Matthew Martin, Nathan Babb, James Roach, Jamie Cartwright, Bre-anna Tonte, Brandon Walsh, Mich-ael Kohlman and Matt Davis.

PMHS mentors are Warren Brew-ster, Joe Tonte, Nathan Nitsch, John Carter, Anthony Chastain, David Hoff, Emily Stephens, Brian Clegg, Dani Fagget, Ben Martin and Ninah Clegg.

Scott Ritchie serves as the administrator and coach for Cyber Blue. PMHS teachers Steve Wherry and Steve Fleenor also mentor the team in various ways.

The students are now in the process of completing a website online at www.cyberblue234.com/vex. Also watch The Spotlight for more news about this and the high school competition, which will not occur until April.

[Richard Wallace]

See the FVC 056 robot here

It is nice see an FVC team getting the FIRST message out in the media.

[Jimbo5051]

Pretty Good job. Congrats and nice slogan