Submitted By: April Suesli
Recently 31 students in the Robotics Program at TVEMS participated in the First Lego League Challenge State Championship. The championship was held at Fairmont State University on March 19, 2023. The 31 students made up 8 teams: Coordinators (Oliver Archuleta, Shilah Jones, Lylee Jones, Logan Kopec, Mikaila Lawrence, and Lela Wright), D3 – Dangerous Daring Dominators (Miranda Heater, Tamden Howell, Brooklyn Loria, Alexis Malcom, Savanna Shaffer, and Regan Wimer), M2 – Muffin Men (Ethen Lower, Levi Phillips, and Taliesin Yeager), Red Lightening (Zane Carr, Alexander Leary, and Collin Pitzer), Robo Spartans (Draven Bunnell, Riley Coffman, Joshua Moore, Braxton Smith), The Gears (Branson Hyre, Joel Jones, Johnathan Tuttle, and Landon Wilfong), The Iconics (Rachel Hile, Baylee Lewis, and Alaina Owens), and The Uncrustables (Bella Carr and Zaylie Kisamore).
All teams participated in an Innovation Project Presentation, a Robot Design Presentation, a Core Values Presentation, and a Robot Missions Game. All the teams performed very well and The Gears brought home a trophy for winning the Core Values Award.
The Robotics Program is run by myself and Christine Ward. We also have many parent volunteers that make the program successful.
We have received grant funding from Clorox (Kingsford) and an Intermediate Unit 1 Innovation Grant, the supporting funders being the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, the EQT Foundation, and the Equitrans Midstream Foundation. We also received funding from the BRITE Challenge that was hosted last spring by Eastern Community and Technical College and the National Youth Science Foundation. The Robotics Program would not be possible without our donors.
