December 2018: Shaker Heights Middle School Robotics Team Celebrates Successes

In only its third year, the Shaker Heights Middle School Robotics Club qualified for the VEX IQ Robotics State Competition on February 23, 2019 and the 2019 CREATE U.S. Open Robotics Championship-VEX IQ, Middle School Division from April 4-6, 2019 in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The students who advanced to these competitions represent the best from Ohio and around the United States.

On November 17, the eighth-grade team of Sarah Marcus, Hannah Whitney and Nico Moulthrop won the Excellence award for the STEM, autonomous and skill challenges of their robot at the VEX IQ Brookside Thanksgiving VEX IQ Next Level Qualifier. The students have learned so much and look forward to competing in the next competitions. “With many students beginning to consider possible career options, middle school is a particularly important time for our students to gain positive opinions about STEM subjects that will be taken through to further years. These experiences or perceptions will dramatically impact their future choices,” says Dexter Lindsey, Middle School Robotics Club co-advisor. 

Tracey Warren, also a Middle School Robotics Club co-advisor, says that technology is critical for innovation and robotics matches new digital technologies curriculums. Robotics provides an effective way to teach programming to students, develops skills for future employment, demystifies complex technology for children and, for some children, engages them through calm and predicatable interactions. Plus, Ms. Warren adds, “Children find it fun.”