Island School welcomed 4 Teams from Stamford American School on Friday June 13th for a VEX IQ Challenge robotics competition. Unfortunately, we only had one external school visit us for this Event; however, that did mean that every Team from the Semester 2 Y7-8 VEX Robotics Elements Class was able to compete! I am sure that this led to quite high stress levels for some of the Students: normally, only a small number of Teams get to complete because of the number of places available. Nevertheless, Island School Spirit was in evidence at all levels as everyone mucked-in and made sure that Robots ran and Teams could compete in a speedy procession of Practice and then Qualification Matches; most Teams managing to squeeze in Skills Challenges alongside their main Alliance Matches.
Although 21169B BKDMD from Stamford American ran away with most Awards (3 out of the 6 available!), Island School did see some success as 40807D Tribot Inventions (Cyrus, Michael and Oscar) were awarded the Judges Award; in the Alliance Finals, the combination of 40807E Cyber Synergy (Julian, Diego and Timmy) and 40807F The No Name Gang (Andy, Ian and Max) came second with a score of 20 (the winning Alliance scoring 26). The Teams from Stamford had a lot more experience and were a little older, but hopefully our Islanders have caught some of the Robotics Bug and will come back for more in future years!
I would like to give a special mention to Adhiraaj and Jaedyn from Y7 who were our Referees on the day (having experience of the Competition from Semester 1); Chloe and Jayden from Y11 who acted as Head Referees and Photographer (among other things!); Karen and Timothy from Y12 who helped out on the day and made the Trophies - representing Island School Tech Committee. The day would not have been possible without help from the Island School Support Team. A huge thank you to Mr Lester who acted as Chief Judge on the day, and also made sure that proceedings ran as smoothly as possible throughout (Fire Alarm and all!). Lastly, a big thanks to Stamford American who brought their skilled Teams to Island School and enabled our Semester 2 Students to experience a VEX IQ Challenge Competition.
There’s a new Game already released: who will join the Elements Classes next year to try their hand???
