Robotics in Action

We are thrilled to share the positive news about the expansion of robotics in CVSD. CVU's Robohawks have led the way on many levels. First, they garnered well-deserved attention for their own success as the Vermont Robotics Champions, which we wrote about last spring here. They traveled to Houston to compete in the FIRST Robotics World Championship. That was an amazing experience, where they connected with and learned from other robotics teams and represented CVSD well.

Also last spring, the Robohawks were awarded a grant to support robotics teams at our other schools. That grant provided materials for teams from each of our K-8 schools, enabling them to learn about, prepare, practice, and then participate in FIRST LEGO League (FLL) competitions. The Robohawks followed that up this year by visiting the K-8 teams and offered guidance, expertise, and enthusiastic support. 

Early this fall, teams were formed and coaches and volunteers were recruited. Funding for the coaches and some additional materials was provided by a number of district grants including a Rowland Foundation grant awarded to Tim O'Leary and Charlie MacFadyen and a CVSD Innovation grant. Tim O'Leary was especially instrumental in organizing and supporting the effort to get the FLL teams underway.

We are proud to say that every one of CVSD's K-8 schools had a team this year and they all participated in the Vermont FIRST LEGO League competition at the end of January. Some photos from that event and comments from coaches and students can be found below. 

From WCS Coach Allan Miller: 

It was great to see all 4 CVSD schools field successful teams this year and a huge thank you to Tim O’Leary and Charlie MacFadyen for sharing the Roland grant funds to help support the teams and Olaf Verdonk and the CVU Robohawks for their financial and technical support. This is probably the most successful full-district initiative I’ve seen in the past 10 years.

From SCS Coach Joey Adams: 

The SCS RoboCats finished up their first season with a resounding crescendo of teamwork and joy at the First Lego League Robotics State Championships at Norwich University on January 28th. The team was composed of over forty SCS students from grades 4th-7th who participated in the after-school sport from October to January. Their dedication to teamwork, building friendships, and having fun were on full display at the competition and throughout the season. The RoboCats worked hard on building robots to solve complex missions that involved learning and applying computer coding skills while working interdependently. The competition also included an intense judging panel that interviewed the RoboCats about their team roles, challenges, and what they learned as individuals and as a team. A quote from many RoboCats during the judging panel and feedback received about this new sport at SCS is best summed up: "...we worked so hard as a team and we learned so much but we also had so much fun while making new friends..." The RoboCats and the coaches can't wait for next season where we plan to roar with joy even louder together! 

From Tim Holcomb and CCS:

The kids worked really hard in completing several missions and getting their attachments to cooperate. With lots of innovation and creativity, they were proud of (and surprised) at how well they performed at the competition. As a team, we are looking forward to growing and continuing our program.

From HCS Student Jo Reiley:

On January 28, 2023, twenty-six teams gathered at Norwich University for the FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL) Statewide Championship. Among the teams was a group of ten HCS students from 4th through 8th grade gathered at Norwich to test their coding skills and teamwork. They raced against another team’s robot to complete a set of missions in the span of two and a half minutes. They had been preparing for this moment since October, starting out by just doing a couple of team building activities then slowly escalating into building complex Lego builds including wind turbines, as well as researching a chosen community problem to face for the Innovation Project.

FLL was originally founded by Dean Kamen in 1998. He worked with the owner of the LEGO group Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen to create a fun, STEM, teamwork emphasizing competition. Since then, teams from around the country have been working to code their robot and figure out what their Innovation Project is going to be about.

The team from HCS, or “Platinum Builders,” chose to do three different missions and got set on making those perfect. Their Innovation Project on the other hand was about turbines and their ability to collect energy. No one knew each other very well in the beginning but throughout the past couple of weeks, they have created quite a bond with each other. They hope that their team will grow next year and can’t wait to partake in the competition again.

- HCS coaches are Stephanie Bruning and Sunshine Ouimette

And finally, the Robohawks did it again and defended their title last weekend as Vermont state champions! Here's a description from coach Olaf Verdonk. 

CVU hosted the annual Vermont FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics Championship this past weekend. There were 19 robotics teams from all over Vermont and this is the second year that CVU has entered TWO teams into the tournament; the varsity squad RoboHawks (#5741) and the JV squad RoboRedhawks (#22683). You may recall that last year the RoboHawks qualified for the World Championship...well this year both teams were outstanding!
This year CVU will be sending not one team to the World Championship, but BOTH teams!

The JV team managed to outplay the varsity team and led the way to the afternoon playoff stages. The JV team created an alliance partnership with the varsity team and together this CVU alliance won the tournament! The best of three finals were SUPER exciting with the CVU alliance winning the last match by only 4 points! The tournament win gives the JV team a berth for the World Championship in Houston, TX. Not to be outdone by the JV team, the varsity RoboHawks team were selected as the prestigious Inspire Award champions as the best team and robot in the tournament which qualified them for the World Championship in Houston, TX in April.

The RoboHawks won several other awards due to their outstanding work in all aspects of the competition. They vastly outscored all teams in the judged presentation, design, and engineering portfolio events of the tournament.

This document outlines all their awards, as well as description of the semi-final and final knockout stage matches.

RoboHawks:
Crawford Phillips, Jared Kennedy, Sam Yager, Violet Fennern, Jack Gourlay, James Haines, Addison Hoopes, Joe Jacobs, Jaden Parker

RoboRedhawks:
Clay Nicholson, Braden Griffin, Will Akerly, Gavin Blackburn, Jacob Graham, with support from Rhett Gardner and Sean Maynard

Congratulations and well done to all students, coaches, and volunteers!