By CHARLES BOLDES
Student Reporter
Saturday at the Alva Recreation Complex, it was game day for BEST Robotics.
The Heartland BEST 2014 kicked off on Sept. 20. The competition finished off at the Heartlands BEST, where the best five teams will advance to Frontier Trails BEST at the University of Arkansas in Fort Smith.
BEST Robotics has been going on for 21 years, with robotics competitions organized across the Midwest. Each year the game rules are changed, and this year’s competition was “Blade Runner.”
This year there were 14 teams in the Heartlands Best competition. Burlington Middle school worked together with their high school and Fairview and Aline-Cleo teamed up this year. Sadly, Wynona was unable to make it due to their bus breaking down on the way there.
Everything came together slowly on game day. There were fewer kit issues this year and fewer programming problems. “Teams had a lot of fun, and there were no major issues at all. It was interesting to see the very creative and unique designs each team came up with also,” said Northwestern math professor Mary Riegel.
“There were several well-designed robots on the field. The atmosphere had a lot of energy, and it was loud. Students seemed to enjoy Game Day,” said Mathematics and Computer Science Department Chair Timothy Maharry.
Psychology professor Karen Linstrum said it was great to see younger students and older students working so well together also. “I was impressed when an 11th grader was driving the robot and an eighth grader was giving the driver directions. After the three-minute competition round, the eighth grader patted the 11th grader on the back and told him, ‘good job.’ I saw and heard this positive interaction from several teams: Perry, Shattuck, Aline-Cleo, and Elk City. The interaction warmed my heart (and) made me smile.”
Northwestern Computer Science Club also helped at the competition Saturday, running a snack bar as a fundraiser.
“Everything went smoothly the entire day. It’s fun getting to see young kids being excited about robotics, math and science and getting to be themselves in a room full of other people just like them,” said Evan Vaverka, Computer Science Club President. The club also ran a booth for taking pictures for the teams, so they were tasked with multiple things.
Instructor of Computer Science Mark Bagley, who is in charge of the Computer Science Club, said this was one of the most successful competitions he has seen. At the end of the day multiple schools received many awards.
Prue High School, in its first year at the competition, was able to win an award. Chair of the Department of Natural Science Steven Maier was impressed to see a new school come up and was pleased overall with every school this year. He said one his most memorable moments during game day was the mascot dance-off and seeing each school have their mascot just dance.
“It was great to see how well the communiity has grown since last year, and how well they were working together” said Maier. Maier thanked all of the BEST sponsors, the City of Alva for allowing them to use the Recreation Center and Northwestern for the support during Game Day.
Advancing to Frontier Trails BEST at University of Arkansas-Ft. Smith will be OKC Homeschool, Perry High School, Shattuck High School, Aline-Cleo/Fairview High School and Deer Creek High School.