By Keith Knepp
InkFreeNews
NAPPANEE/WAKARUSA — Eight teams, which included around 50 elementary and middle school students from Wa-Nee Community Schools, participated in the VEX Robotics Worlds Championships, held in Dallas, Texas, May 1-3.
Now in its eighth year of existence, the Wa-Nee Robotics program has sent at least one team to the world stage each season. It all began in 2016 with a grant received by Woodview Elementary School teacher, Jake Simons. With the money, Simons began the program’s first team, the Woodview Eaglebots. He hand selected 10 fourth and fifth graders for the team, making it the first of many in the program. That team exceeded all expectations and earned not only a state bid, but also an invitation to the VEX Robotics World Championships, which at that time was held in Louisville, Ky.
What started as one team with 10 kids from one school has blossomed into 18 teams with 120 students, spread across the five district schools from elementary through high school.
The goal of each season is to qualify for the Indiana VEX Robotics Championship, held inside Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. From there, teams have the opportunity to qualify for Worlds, which for the last three seasons has been in Dallas, Texas. In 2020, the competition was canceled, and in 2021 it was held virtually.
To put the overall success of Wa-Nee Robotics into perspective, this year there were 1,935 elementary, middle and high school teams in Indiana; 329 of those teams qualified for state, or 17%. There are 18 elementary, middle and high school teams in Wa-Nee; 17 of those teams qualified for state, or 94%.
At state, there were 22 elementary, 17 middle school and 17 high school bids allotted to Indiana teams to go to Worlds. Eight of those invitations went to teams from the Wa-Nee program — four from NorthWood Middle School, two from Woodview Elementary and one each from Nappanee and Wakarusa elementary schools.
As it has been for the past three years, the program chartered buses to ferry the students and many parents to the Lone Star State. The money to do so, as well as the $1,800 necessary to register each of the eight teams, were raised through several fundraisers throughout the year, as well as donations from businesses and individuals. The program doesn’t receive its funding from the schools or taxpayers.
During the Worlds competition, the teams competed with and against those from countries, such as China, Australia, Kazakhstan, Vietnam and other far-away lands, as well as other American teams from across the country. In total, there were 45 states and 53 countries represented at the event.
The competition was divided into 10 divisions of 80-85 team — five each for middle school and elementary. After three long days, two of the teams, one from NorthWood Middle School and the other from Woodview Elementary, advanced to the next round, to which the top 20 teams in each division were selected. From that, only two from each division go to the finals, which are held as the last event on the third day in an arena filled with around 8,000 screaming kids, coaches, parents, family members and volunteers.
Although this year’s trip didn’t result in any trophies for most of the Wa-Nee teams, one of the NorthWood Middle School teams did win the Inspire Award in its division. In 2019, however, the Eaglebots earned a world championship in Louisville when it was deemed the best overall program in the world.
The robotics program in Wa-Nee is an incredible opportunity to inspire young minds in the STEM field: science, technology, engineering and math. Among other things, it teaches them lessons in teamwork, success, failure, perseverance, time management, hard work, communication and cooperation.
“Our students and staff, once again, cemented themselves as one of the strongest public school robotics programs on the planet,” said Simons, who has since added the title of director of Wa-Nee Robotics along with his continued coaching role at Woodview. “It’s a long season that has a lot of mishaps and challenges. But the beauty of robotics is that we embrace those challenges to make us better roboticists and, more importantly, better people. The trophies and banners are great, but the lessons learned and lifeskills gained are invaluable. I’m excited to see how these young leaders can make our world a better place.”
To learn more, check out the Wa-Nee Robotics Facebook page, or contact Simons at [email protected].
