Sonoma County Robotics Challenge, May 4
Author: Rick Phelan
Published: 04.25.13
Elementary and middle school students from grades 4-8 will demonstrate 21st century thinking skills and abilities when intricate robots they’ve constructed compete in the Sonoma County Robotics Challenge. This event takes place on Saturday, May 4, from 9:00am to 2:00pm, at Elsie Allen High School, 599 Bellevue Avenue, Santa Rosa.
Over 300 students from 18 schools will participate. Working in teams, they will compete in six events that require skill in robot design and programming:
- Bull Dozer: This event takes place in a 4-foot by 4-foot space with 8-ounce soda cans filled with sand. Competitors must design robots that detect the cans and bull doze them to “target areas.” The winning robot is the one that earns the most points by pushing the soda cans to the target areas in the least amount of time.
- Sumo: Robot sumo wrestling engages two robot contestants in trying to push each other out of a circular ring. The first robot to touch the floor outside of the ring loses. The last robot remaining in the ring wins.
- Off Road Racing: Off Road Racing involves a 16-foot long course with blocks of wood placed at different intervals. The object of this event is to design a robot that will overcome the barriers, stay on track, and finish in the fastest time.
- Free-Form Challenge: This year’s free-form challenge encourages student teams to explore the idea of “basketball.” A team may pick any task to accomplish using a planned script of actions. The only requirement is that the robot follow the planned script.
- Hit a Brick: This activity requires competitors to design robots that will recognize and follow a black line from start to finish, then stop at the end when it “hits a brick.” The winner completes the course in the fastest time.
- Drag Racing: Students will race robots on a track that is 16 feet long, with a goal of beating their opponents to the finish line.
Work on the Sonoma County Robotics Challenge spans the months of February through April. Competitors learn of the challenge events in February. The next three months involve students designing, constructing, and programming robots using Lego Mindstorm robotics kits and programming software. Project work promotes the 21st century skills of problem solving, innovation, team collaboration, and communication.
The Sonoma County Office of Education partnered with local schools and the Sonoma County Economic Development Board to create this program, which is now in its eleventh year. The goal of the partnership is to engage elementary and middle school students in applying mathematics, science, engineering, critical thinking, teamwork, and oral presentation skills through robotics activities.
Since its inception, the Robotics Challenge has reached over 100 local elementary and middle schools, involving over 2,000 students and 150 teachers. The project successfully leverages the resources of sponsoring agencies to accomplish something that wouldn’t have been possible had any one agency acted alone. The project meets its educational goals by actively engaging students in applying academic learning.
Learn more and see a video
Sonoma County Robotics Challenge website
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