CRESTVIEW — Bob Sikes Elementary School's Robotics team has bragging rights after competing in a middle school tournament and winning.
Nine teams of fourth- through eighth-graders participated in the Okaloosa County School District's 2nd Okaloosa RoBotic Invitational Tournament on May 9.
"In this competition, students programmed their Lego Mindstorms robots to autonomously accomplish five different missions that included Drag Race, Ball Pickup, Ball shoot, Maze and Step Climber," an OCSD news release states. "Students had the opportunity to attempt each event up to nine times throughout the day."
Teams from Bob Sikes Elementary School, Baker Middle School, Davidson Middle School, Okaloosa STEMM Academy, Ruckel Middle School, Pryor Middle School, Mary Esther Elementary School, Bruner Middle School and Emerald Coast Science Center competed in the event, which the RadioActive Roaches, Niceville High School’s Robotics team, organized.
"All events are automated, which means that students program their robots ahead of time to go onto each course, accomplishing each task and then returning to base without the use of remote control," an OCSD news release states. "Students' programming skills were stretched by the complex coding necessary to traverse a maze with a decision point. Students were also required to program switching to follow optional path choices in the Ball Pickup event, while picking up balls of the designated color."
Judges for the event — which was presented by the OCSD, the Doolittle Institute and Niceville High School CHOICE IT — included volunteers from Eglin Air Force Base and the University of West Florida, among others.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Bob Sikes Elementary takes first place in middle school robotics competition