VEX IQ robotics

*Media Advisory* Oyster River to Host Robotics Competition this Weekend

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Oyster River Cooperative School District
SAU No. 5
Superintendent James Morse
36 Coe Drive
Durham, NH 03824

For Immediate Release

Friday, Jan. 25, 2019

Media Contact: John Guilfoil
Phone: 617-993-0003
Email: [email protected]

*Media Advisory* Oyster River to Host Robotics Competition this Weekend

Nine groups of Oyster River Middle School students built robots this year and competed against groups from other schools in VEX IQ Robotics Competitions. The school will hold it’s first VEX IQ robotics competition this Sunday, Jan. 27. (Courtesy photo Oyster River Cooperative School District)

DURHAM – Principal Jay Richard is pleased to announce that Oyster River Middle School will host its first VEX IQ robotics event this Sunday.

Approximately 45 students in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades at Oyster River Middle School take part in VEX IQ robotics, and are coached after school by teachers John Silverio and Jason Duff.

VEX IQ Robotics is a robotics building program that teaches students STEM concepts through the act of building and programming a robot.

Students who joined the VEX IQ Robotics club at Oyster River Middle School this fall started working on their robots in late September. Four out of the middle school’s nine teams have qualified this year for the state tournament on Feb. 17 at Manchester Community College. Two to five students are in each team.

Last year, one Oyster River Middle School team won the New Hampshire/ Vermont state championship VEX IQ Robotics competition in multiple categories. The same team also participated in the World VEX IQ event in April 2018 in Louisville, Kentucky.

On Sunday, Jan. 27, Oyster River Middle School is hosting it’s first annual VEX IQ Next Level Tournament from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The tournament is the last qualifying event for New Hampshire teams, and 32 groups from across the state have signed up to compete.

Students will face a variety of challenges in the competition. Individual teams will have one minute to score as many points as possible on the ‘challenge table.” Points can be scored by maneuvering a robot to move hubs on the table and stacking them in two scoring zones. Teams can also earn points by directing their robot to complete the round with a particular action, such as parking their robot under a bar or hanging from it. Points will also be added to the ‘skills’ score if a team programs their robot to score points autonomously.

Teams will also participate in pairs to score as many points as possible in one minute teamwork challenges during the tournament, ending in a ‘step ladder’ competition where the two teams with the highest scores will advance to the state tournament.

Engineering judges will also evaluate teams based on robot design and performance. Two awards, one for design and another for overall excellence, will be awarded at the competition. Teams that are given either award will qualify for the state tournament. Teams will also be assessed by their engineering knowledge and design, as well as an engineering log that tracks their process for building a robot and their engineering design stages.

For more information about Sunday’s competition visit www.robotevents.com/robot-competitions/vex-iq-challenge/RE-VIQC-18-6984.html.

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Oyster River Middle School Robotics Team Heads to World Championship

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Oyster River Cooperative School District
SAU No. 5
Superintendent James Morse
36 Coe Drive
Durham, NH 03824

For Immediate Release

Monday, March 26, 2018

Media Contact: John Guilfoil
Phone: 617-993-0003
Email: [email protected]

Oyster River Middle School Robotics Team Heads to World Championship

DURHAM — Principal Jay Richards is pleased to announce that one of Oyster River Middle School’s VEX IQ robotics teams will be heading to the World Championship next month.

Over the winter, a team of four middle school students — seventh graders Kelly Zang and Michael O’Laughlin and eighth graders Andrew Kelly and Vincent Xiao — competed at the New Hampshire and Vermont state round of the VEX IQ Challenge at Manchester Community College. Their performance solidified them as one of two teams to qualify for the World Championship.

This year’s competition, titled the VEX IQ Ringmaster, required students to design and build a robot that would earn the highest number of points by mastering sophisticated driving and programming commands.

To succeed in minute-long challenges, a robot had to be able to pick up and place colored rings in certain areas and on post-like structures on a 4-foot by 8-foot playing field, and use its arms to release a bonus tray full of additional rings. The more difficult the task, the more points the team earned.

Oyster River Middle School robotics teams first competed at the district level, with three moving onto the state level. There, Zang, O’Laughlin, Kelly and Xiao won the teamwork championship award, robot design award and the robot skills award, securing them a spot at the World Championship.

The team of four will head to the World Championship in Louisville, Kentucky on April 29-May 1 where they’ll represent the Oyster River Cooperative School District and New Hampshire.

“This is a special group of kids who have tackled a number of challenges throughout this process, which is what has made them successful,” Robotics Coach John Silverio said. “On top of being extremely intelligent and talented, each of these students has a certain skill set that complements the other, like engineering and programming. The World Championship is going to be a tough competition, but the students have quite a robot and are excited to show off what they can do.”

Silverio, along with Oyster River Middle School Robotic Coach Jason Duff, re-launched the robotics program in 2014. This is the first year students have worked with VEX IQ robots.

In order to travel to Kentucky for the competition, the robotics team is fundraising to help offset some of the costs.

Residents who wish to make a donation to the robotics team can do so through the team’s Gofundme page here.

About the Oyster River Cooperative School District:

New Hampshire SAU 5, the Oyster River Cooperative School District serves 2,100 students in Durham, Lee and Madbury. It is one of the oldest cooperative districts in the state. The Oyster River Cooperative School District has a long history of providing excellent educational opportunities for its students. The District is committed to and supportive of quality education. This commitment and support have helped the district recruit and maintain an excellent teaching staff and outstanding administrative leadership team.

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