Wizard of Oz Robotics Competition - April 2013

Davie County Schools Robotics Competition: The Wizard of Oz

“Ready, Set, Go”! On April 26th, Davie County Schools celebrated the 3rd

Annual District Robotics Competition. This year, students were asked to read The Wizard of Oz in preparation for the challenges designed

for the Finale. Each of the challenges were based on the plot and played out on a 4’ x 8’ mat that represented the map of Oz. This event was the culmination of a yearlong series of robotics competitions.

The robotics season begins the first weeks of school with each elementary and middle school building their teams for the year. Once students are selected, coaches begin to teach students team building skills, engineering design, robot design and robot programming. Due to the nature of the program, students naturally develop critical thinking, time management, collaboration, and communication skills.

On October 18th, each of the 3 middle schools and 6 elementary schools competed against the challenges of the Wake Forest Baptist Hospital medical mat from the end last year’s robotics challenge series. Students programmed the Lego Mindstorm robots with different sensor attachments to complete challenges that included a body scan, removal of kidney stones, delivery of meals to a patient’s room, tour of the hospital, code blue to administer defibrillator and others. This first event was designed to stimulate interest and prepare teams for more difficult challenges later in the school year.

At the completion of this challenge, teams were presented with the theme for the spring competitions. Teams began to read The Wizard of Oz and were asked to create two challenges for the February 28th competition.

The second competition on December 18th was a break from the typical 4’ x 8’ challenge mat and focused on a set of three different challenges. This set of challenges included a Sumo Challenge played on a 4' diameter raised circle, where the objective is to push your opponent off the edge; a Dragster Challenge, where teams race down a 12' long by 4' wide track as fast as they can; and a Tug-of-War Challenge, where the object is to pull your opponent into a gap between two surfaces. Teams were encouraged to explore a new design for their robots to compete in the different contests.

On February 28th the teams returned to competition to take on challenges, created by each of the 9 participating schools, with The Wizard of Oz theme. This competition took place at three different sites and saw elementary school teams competing against one another and middle school teams competing against one another. Teams came to this competition with challenges pre-programmed. As an added feature, each school was required to orally present its challenge to the audience while demonstrating the challenge with a robot. Teams were evaluated using a rubric for their presentation and success of the robot run.

All of this lead to the final competition on April 26th at Davie County High School. A total of 83 students participated in a double elimination tournament with challenges created by the curriculum team that followed the plot of The Wizard of Oz. Each team was provided with 2 minutes

and 30 seconds to run challenges and accumulate as many points possible in a head to head battle with another team. In the end, the Elementary School Division champion was the Shady Grove Panthers and the runner up was the William R. Davie Mickey Boston team. The Middle School Division champion was the South Davie 4 Amigos and the runner up was the North Davie Team Om Num Num. The evening ended with a head to head match-up between the winners of both divisions in order to crown a grand champion. In a close battle that saw both teams score over 100 points, the South Davie Middle School 4 Amigo’s defeated the Shady Grove Panthers.

The event was judged by Chad Fuller and Paul Drechsler (DCS Board of Education), Terry Brawley (President, Davie County Economic Development Commission), Pamela Short (DCCC Interim Dean of Business, Engineering and Technology), Anissa Causey (Davidson County Community College), Gary Bullard (Grey Engineering), and David Koontz (DCS Career and Technology Education Teacher). Teresa Kines also helped judge competitions throughout the year. These seven judges worked the competition tables from 4:00 until 7:30 judging the competition without much of a break. Without their support, this competition would not have been possible.

A special thanks to Lin Taylor Graphic Design and Matthew Johnston for the time spent designing and revising the competition mat to meet the vision of the curriculum department, and to Davis Sign Company for making the vision a reality. To all the teachers who volunteered their time and energy to coach afterschool teams throughout the entire school year. Finally, thank you to all the parents who supported the program and allowed their students to participate in this afterschool activity.