By Bonita Wilborn
On Saturday, October 27, the Fort Payne High School BEST Robotics team placed 2nd overall at the Northeast Alabama Local Hub Competition. Their placement insures that the team will advance to the Southeast United States Competition, also known as, South’s BEST, in December at Auburn University. Fort Payne High School Science Instructor, and Project Lead The Way Engineering Instructor, Amanda Wells, said the competition in December will involve 56 teams from five states.BEST stands for Boosting Engineering, Science, and Technology, and is a national program with fifty local competition sites in eighteen states. It is administered by BEST Inc., a 501c3 non-profit organization, that sets curriculum and competition standards. The mission of BEST is to inspire students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics through participation in a competitive robotics program that fosters knowledge, teamwork, and communication. A major tenet of the program is that it is free to schools; there is no cost for robotics materials or to enter a team.
Each year, middle and high school student teams are tasked with building a robot to compete against other schools in that year’s challenge. Each challenge is based on an educational model. The robotics competition is a high-energy sports-like environment, but good sportsmanship is essential. Student-driven robots compete against the challenges of the game, not other robots. Each year’s game theme and playing field is revealed in mid-September. Teams are given six weeks to design and build their robot before entering their local competition.
In addition to robotics, the most coveted award of the program is the BEST Award. To compete, students must provide an engineering notebook, give an oral marketing presentation, construct an educational exhibit, and show excellent team spirit and sportsmanship. BEST uses the excitement of robotics to teach engineering and business processes.
Along with the 2nd place BEST Award, meaning they received 2nd place overall, the BEST Robotics team also won: • 1st place website • 1st place spirit • 2nd place exhibit • 2nd place engineering notebook • 2nd place marketing presentation • Best team theme and • Best CAD model.
Congratulations to the student on Fort Payne’s Robotics team and good luck at the South’s BEST Competition in December.
Amanda Wells said, “I was very proud of the students. It wasn’t an individual effort, they advanced because of an over all team effort. They did a really good job working together.”
