By Lisa Carolin
The fall sports season ended in November and so did the season for the Beach Middle School robotics teams.
Seventeen students participated on two teams this year, the Beach Robotics Blue team and the Beach Robotics Gold team, which met twice a week for nine weeks.
Both teams competed in a tournament in Allen Park on Nov. 15, placing in the middle for robot performance. They competed against 22 teams from the metro-Detroit area.
The teams had to design, build, and program an autonomous robot to solve tasks known as missions. The students also had to present a creative solution to a problem based on this year’s theme, World Class Learning, how people learn.
“Our two teams chose to do skits illustrating chain learning, where people pass information from one group to another,” said Duane Moss, coach of Beach’s robotics team. “The teams received positive feedback from engineers for their mechanical designs and problem-solving methods.”
Moss says that robotics is a hand’s on way for students to learn about the mechanics, programming and electronics of a robot as well as learning how to approach problems and to work together as a team.
“Learning how to listen, compromise and problem-solve as a group of middle school students is not easy,” said Moss. “One of the many highlights I enjoy every season is watching individual middle school students, each with their own thoughts and opinions on how things should be done, come together to solve problems and truly function as a team.”
Gary Dosey, the district network engineer and a parent, coaches the teams with Moss. The teams get financial support through grants from the Chelsea Education Foundation and the Chrysler Foundation-Chelsea Proving Grounds.
Moss, who has taught in the Chelsea School District for 20 years, teaches most of the technology classes at both the high school and the middle school. The courses focus on engineering and problem-solving and include Technology and Design, Introduction to Computer Aided Design, Mechanical Computer Aided Design, Architectural Computer Aided Design, and Robotics at the high School, and Introduction to Technology and Exploring Technology at the middle school.
Beach Robotic Gold members:
Alexa Rigotti
Jimmy Ostler
Byron Hodel
Dominic Guthre
Logan Otto
Kepler Eberle
Zacahary Dosey
Ramona Keaton
Aiden Reames
Beach Robotics Blue members:
Evan Eidit
Matthew Wright
Sawyer Nothrop
Adrain Eder
Mitchell Dickinson
Joel Basar
Rebecca Wurster
Amanda Dosey
