Robotics Rising
We often observe the robotics team at a local school or town function, and it’s always impressive to see what they’ve created, but if you lean in closer, you’ll see the deep levels of ingenuity, education, perseverance and, of course, fun throughout the program that many of us wish were available when we were in school.
Plainfield sent three teams to the VEX IQ World Championship, April 28-30 in St. Louis this year. Out of 8,401 elementary teams in the world, only 420 qualified for Worlds. Out of 8,523 middle school teams, 418 qualified, and students from more than 50 different countries participated.
One team was led by Jennifer Gray, a fourth-grade teacher and robotics coach at Brentwood Elementary, another by Dana Loudermilk, art teacher and robotics coach at Guilford Elementary, and an independent middle school team with students from Plainfield, Cathedral and Zionsville led by Adam Gray, a software engineer.
“We have five teams of fourth- and fifth-graders at Brentwood. We attend three or four local competitions beginning in December, and this past year, the state robotics competition was held at Lucas Oil Stadium,” Jennifer said. “My team of four fourth-grade girls, The Gadget Girlz, qualified for Worlds. This was Brentwood’s fifth time going to Worlds, so it’s never expected but a really big deal when we qualify.”
Each year, robotics teams are challenged with building a robot that can successfully achieve a series of obstacles or tasks, and the teams spend nearly a year working on ideas, programming, failures and finally, the robot they will compete with.
Loudermilk coached The Gearbusters, one fourth-grader and three fifth-graders at Guilford Elementary.
“Each team plays the same game, has the same objective, but they are split into different categories at Worlds. So my team did not compete with Brentwood. We were in the Arts Division and they were in the Math Division, for example,” Loudermilk said. “What I love about it is the teams have to communicate with each other and come up with a game plan. They want the opposing team to do well. Two teams are randomly placed together, and if our robot scored 30 and another robot scored 15, then we both get a 45 for that round. I love that it’s all about collaboration and working together.”
Plainfield resident Adam Gray started an independent team in 2018 when his son wanted to continue competing in VEX IQ in middle school but also wanted to participate in sports at Plainfield Community Middle School, and practices and competitions conflicted.
“Our goal was to be as flexible as possible so they could participate and be involved in other things too. This year, we met on Sundays for four or five hours at a time and had a slow start to the season, but once we got going, they each found really complementary skill sets and they cooperated really well,” Adam said. “All four are extremely intelligent and good at all of the different aspects of the program, but I think they fell into specific niches and areas of expertise, so they worked really well together.”
At the end of the weekend, all three Plainfield teams were happy with their results.
The Gadget Girlz — Savannah Gray, Delsie Murrison, Ivy O’Brien and Lucy Rose — placed 52 out of 83 elementary teams in the Math Division.
The Gearbusters — Camden Cole, Layth Gharbi, Graham Davis and Everett Morton — placed 58 out of 85 in the Arts Division, earning their highest score yet.
Adam Gray’s team, 46168A-Adenosine Triphosphate — Andrew Gray, Matthew Roth, Violet Fortner and Nirdvaita Chandrana — placed 44 out of 82 in the Spirit Division and came home with the Judges Award, one of five Indiana teams awarded at Worlds.
Their results are impressive when compared to the thousands of students and hundreds of teams who attended, but simply qualifying is a win, and the students take home so much more than points and awards.
“I love watching students who come in shy and not really sure about this robotics thing, and now they’re totally involved, walking over to an alliance team that’s likely from a different country and strategizing with them,” Jennifer said. “They are working on critical-thinking skills, communication and creativity. They are participating in a 10-minute interview with judges and using Google Translate to talk to teams from around the world. It’s pretty awesome to see.”
Students struggle with setbacks and challenges along the way too.
Controllers break, programs malfunction and the unexpected happens, but learning resilience isn’t just something they’ll need in robotics.
Adam said he wants his team to think beyond the minimum and instead focus on how far they can go to seek success.
“They’re developing confidence, and one of the great things about robotics is the length of the season. It’s nearly an entire year, and that gives you a chance to fail a lot and learn from that and keep going,” Adam said. “I want them to know they can be as good as they want to be, but why not try to win? Put in the work that supports your goal to win. It’s a different mindset. While practicing for the judges interview, one of the girls said, ‘In the past, I’ve always looked at the minimum bar that would qualify to get where we wanted to go, but now I’m looking at it like, what do we need to do to win Worlds?’”
As the program continues to grow, the coaches are thankful they have the support of the Plainfield community and beyond.
Indiana is one of the leading states in robotics, sending 18 elementary teams and 15 middle school teams to Worlds this year.
“It costs $1,800 to participate in Worlds, and companies like TechPoint Youth in Indianapolis offer grants to send more teams. I’m really appreciative of the families because they work hard to get the kids to practice and take time off work for these trips. The school is doing fundraisers, and it really feels like there’s a community of people pitching in,” Loudermilk said.
