SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. -- Three Shepherdstown Middle School (SMS) robotics teams will attend the 2024 VEX IQ State Championship after excelling in two regional competitions. Veteran SMS teams The Mech Makers, The Live Wires, and The Shepherds! each earned a spot at states following the VEX IQ Robotics Competition: Full Volume tournaments held at James Rumsey Technical Institute (JRTI) on February 10 and SMS on February 24.
Five new Wildwood Middle School (WMS) teams also debuted their skills at the February 24 event, which marked the first time Jefferson County hosted a VEX IQ robotics competition. Randall Short, SMS STEAM teacher and robotics coach, said it is an exciting development for students interested in robotics.
"STEAM is an important skill set that we are just beginning to explore academically," said Short. "By bringing the VEX IQ competitions to Jefferson County, we provide an outlet for those students to excel in ways that will give them valuable skills for the future."
The Mech Makers of SMS
Jefferson County Schools (JCS) now boasts ten robotics teams at the middle school level, including two additional teams at Charles Town Middle School (CTMS). The CTMS teams were unable to attend this year's regional tournaments.
SMS eighth grader Cadmon Kesecker led The Shepherds! to the West Virginia state championship for the second consecutive year with a qualifying score at the JRTI tournament on February 10. The Mech Makers, led by seventh graders Sam Cooper and Sam McDade, and The Live Wires, led by eighth grader Sofia Herrera, earned their spot at states during the SMS competition. The Mech Makers also placed second overall at the February 24 tournament, while The Shepherds! tied with new WMS team The Robo-Recallers (header photo) for third place.
VEX IQ robotics competitions include three types of challenges. The Teamwork Challenge requires two teams to work together, with both robots cooperating to score maximum points in a one-minute match. The Robot Skills challenge is a timed round involving a single robot. In the final challenge, each robot works autonomously through a student-written code to score points for its team.
The Shepherds! of SMS
SMS eighth-grader Tristan Meinhardt is enjoying his second year as part of The Shepherds(!). He said his favorite aspects of robotics are the creativity and teamwork involved.
"It's so much fun because you can be as creative as you want," he said, "You can really do anything!"
The Robotics Education & Competition Foundation (RECF) sponsors all VEX IQ robotics competitions, working with the West Virginia Robotics Alliance to organize more than 70 middle school teams in the state. Fairmont State University will host the 2024 VEX IQ State Championship, with events at the middle school level scheduled for March 12.