Drew Hull, 9, Youssef Bousaidi, 10, Liam Hull, 11, Matthew Mudry, 10, Daniel Murphy, 10, and Alexander Abboud, 11, all students at Aldrin Elementary School in Reston were awarded the Second Place Robot Skills Award which they received at the VEX Robotics State Championship for the state of Virginia held in Doswell. Photo contributed
Students from Reston’s Aldrin Elementary School’s robotics team competed March 1 in the 2019 Virginia State VEX robotics championship in Doswell, Va. The action-packed day engaged 18 teams of elementary students from schools across Virginia in the 2018-2019 VEX IQ Next Level Challenge. Aldrin’s BuzzBots had three of their four robotics teams qualify to compete on several levels including individual and teamwork driving skills, robot design, and all-around excellence. All three teams qualified for the finals matches and one team was awarded the second place Teamwork Challenge award.
In VEX robotics, students design, build, and program their own customized robots to score as many points as possible. This season, teams score points by making their robot collect and stack hubs in building zones, remove bonus hubs that are elevated on a structure more than 15 inches high, and park or hang on an elevated horizontal bar. Robotics teaches the children skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork, and communication.
Aldrin’s Buzzbots has four teams, with students from third to sixth grade. The Buzzbots are: Anthony Starkov, Liam Hull, Alexander Abboud, Drew Hull, Youssef Bousaidi, Matthew Mudry, Daniel Murphy, Laurel Allison, and Alex Raye.
VEX Competitions make up the world’s largest and fastest growing competitive robotics programs for elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and colleges around the world. More than 20,000 teams from 45 countries participate in greater than 1,500 VEX Robotics events worldwide. More information about VEX Robotics Competitions is available at RoboticsEducation.org or VEXRobotics.com.