BEST Robotics Contest 10/17/2015

          Excitement is building for the BEST Robotics Competition which will take place this SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2015 at Woodlands College Park High School. Robots will be competing all day from 9:30am until 3:00pm. Plan to bring your family out and cheer on the Extraordinary Innovation Labs team from Extraordinary Education. Don’t forget to wear the team’s colors for this year which are black, grey, white and copper and bring your noisemakers. (no air-horns allowed)

          The B.E.S.T. Competition is a robotics competition held annually. The program seeks to Boost Engineering, Science and Technology among middle and high school students. It lasts six weeks and challenges students to use processes in engineering and design to develop a fictional company that will build a robot to meet a certain need. This student led team then competes with other teams from across their area to test and market their product.

          The theme of this year's competition is “Pay Dirt”. The “need” that must be fulfilled involves mining for resources including coal, copper, aluminum, iron, lithium and aggregate and well as mining safety. The challenge also incorporates the commodities market and fluctuating prices (points) based on supply and demand.  Extraordinary Innovation Labs, sponsored by the Extraordinary Education Center, is a team of homeschooled students ranging in age from 11 to 18 years. The team has participated in the BEST competition every year since 2001.

          2015 presents a new challenge and therefore, produces a new team who will be fulfilling this challenge. Our team’s fictional company this year is called “Rolling Stones”. We are looking for safe, efficient ways to mine resources as well as repair and maintain the mine. In order to complete all the tasks that lead up to final game day, the team is divided into two divisions: Technology Division and Marketing Division. Each division is in charge of a crucial part of constructing or promoting our company and products.

The marketing division's job is to promote the company. In order to do this, the group must set up meetings with future employees, create outlets where people can view the team, and even come up with a presentation to a board of potential investors (judges) while maintaining a professional environment. Marketing is accountable for just as much work as the technology division, although their work is more public and less physical. However, marketing members do have the opportunity to build when it comes time to construct their booth for Game Day.

Of course, the other division is the technology department. In the technology department they deal with the construction of the product. Their product, the robot, has to complete certain tasks and also comply with restrictions given by the judges in order to score. They help marketing by giving them information on how the robot was built, the math involved, and plenty of other things required for The Notebook. Both teams are tested in their abilities to work together to create and accomplish tasks dealing with both the physical and organizational aspects of developing a company.

To learn more about BEST Robotics or EIL's Robotics team, you can always visit the team website for more information. (www.eilrobotics.com)