Pittsburgh area homeschoolers win at regional robotic competition in Colorado
A group of Christian home-schooled students from Allegheny, Beaver and Butler counties recently placed in a regional robotics competition held in Colorado.
The students are members of FINS — Family Instructors of the Northern Suburbs (of Pittsburgh) — a home-school group. The students, in grades 6-11, demonstrated their STEM skills over the course of 14 weeks, designing and creating a robot named CAT — Control Automated Transfer.
The team competed at the BEST — Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology — Robotics Regional Championship Dec. 3-4.
They placed second in T-shirt design and third in the BEST award, for overall achievement. It was the first time in five years FINS qualified for regionals.
FINS members are Lucas Davison of Wexford, Zach Sayson of Cranberry, Brady Watkins of Glenshaw, Alex Farrey of Cranberry, David Altland of Baden, Austin White of Cranberry, Clara White of Cranberry, Sarah Stepke of Bellevue, Max Tame of Fox Chapel, Luke Schroeder of Cranberry, Aiden Guffey of Zelienople, Ian Tseng of McCandless, Silas Pickett of Cranberry, Abigail Farrey of Cranberry, Cassidy Altland of Baden, Yasmine Baumgartner of Cranberry, Micah Caskey of Green Tree, Mia Tame of Fox Chapel and Merry Caskey of Green Tree.
On assignment in Fox Chapel with CAT the robot. @VNDNews @TribLIVE @FoxChapelHerald pic.twitter.com/4RoI0LVvgm
— Joyce Hanz (@hanz_joyce) December 6, 2022
More than 500 middle and high school students from six states competed in the event held at Lockridge Arena in Golden, Colo. FINS was one of 24 teams competing.
It was Max Tame’s first regional competition and traveling to a new state was an added perk.
“It was great going to a new place. I was a driver (with a remote control) with CAT. I helped with marketing on this,” Tame said.
This year’s competition theme is Made2Order, challenging each team to design a robot that addresses global supply chain issues. The robot would control another robot to fill an order in a warehouse setting in under three minutes.
CAT’s parts generally were made of aluminum, wood, PCV pipe and polypropylene.
The parts, including a motion kit with battery-operated motors, were provided by Best Robotics to each competing team.
CAT has feline-themed parts that include a tail, an arm, claw, paw, cat’s eye, homeplate chassis, wheels and motors.
Competition activities included a marketing presentation, a trade-show booth, engineering notebook with details on the robot design, a team T-shirt, spirit and sportsmanship and game competition.
In October, FINS qualified for regionals competing against 12 other teams from New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio in the BEST Robotics Competition at Grove City College in Mercer County. The team placed second overall in the competition.
To prepare for regionals, team members met three times weekly to practice.
BEST competitions aim to inspire students to pursue STEM-related careers in science, math, engineering and technology through robotics design.
Coach Amy Farrey of Cranberry described the process as an extreme group effort.
“This is our first year coaching and my husband said all along this is a learning year. We were amazed. We had a lot of tears and a lot of surprised looks,” Farrey said.
Other coaches include Aaron Ferrey of Cranberry, Amy Silvey of Cranberry, Chad Stepke of Bellevue, Laura Tame of Fox Chapel, Brigitte Altland of Baden and mentors Mary and Daniel Komish of Hampton.
Coach Farrey said her favorite moment was watching the kids prototype things with either LEGOs or cardboard and watching them build from there.
Student Brady Watkins, 13, helped to reset the field during the competitions.
Watkins has a keen interest in robotics.
“I’m very into it, especially the team component. I like robotics, building and designing things,” Watkins said.
The team will meet monthly and work on next year’s design, with a theme of “Incision Decision.”
CAT will be disassembled and some parts will be used in next year’s design.
“We will work on marketing concepts so we’re better prepared for next August,” Laura Tame said. “We’re all extremely proud of the amount of work, time and energy these students have poured into this competition.”
Joyce Hanz is a native of Charleston, S.C. and is a features reporter covering the Pittsburgh region. She majored in media arts and graduated from the University of South Carolina. She can be reached at jhanz@triblive.com
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