Thumbs up to the Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics Awesome Possums robotics team, which is heading to a national championship competition in Atlanta in April after taking the top prize Dec. 5 at the fifth annual FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics Competition at S.C. State University. The students on the team — Mac Rogers of Bennettsville, Nick Bishop of Easley, David Sung of Columbia and Dylan Pruitt of Summerville — paired with a group from Varnville’s Wade Hampton High School to win the trophy. The FIRST Championship at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta is the final and largest event of the organization’s robotics competition series. Competition participants apply real-world math and science concepts and develop problem-solving, creativity, organizational and team-building skills while building their robot. Another Governor’s School participating team, the North Central Positronics, secured a top 10 finish in the competition and deserves kudos, as well. The FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics Competition is sponsored by the non-profit For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Organization, the U.S. Department of Education and S.C. State’s James E. Clyburn University Transportation Center.
Thumbs up to the two Florence School District 1 Robotics Teams advancing to the state finals as a result of their recent placing at the FIRST Lego League Regionals at Florence-Darlington Technical College. The Delmae Elementary School and Moore Intermediate School robotics teams are heading to the state playoffs at Clemson in March. The students, who are between the ages of 9 and 14, are among 13 groups competing from Florence, Darlington and Camden. The Delmae Elementary School team won second place in Robot Performance and second place overall Champion’s Award at the regionals. The team members are Lathe Coker, Joelee Fugate,Caroline Hall, Matthew Lowery, Mason McKnight, Zane Oakes, Caden Shake, Annie Kate Watson and Mia Williams. Debbie Chapman is their adviser, James Hall is assistant coach and Morgan Chapman is student mentor. Also at the competition, the Moore Intermediate RoBoEagles won Best Project and fourth overall. Team members are Neil Dey, Brittany Hairston, Andy Hsu, Zachary Junkins, David Lu, Vishnu Menon, Andrew Odom, Dean Paolucci, Matthew Thow and Michael Worthy. Their coaches are Jeff Murrie and Kay McSwain, and mentors are Simon Lovell of GE, Mike Throw of Progress Energy and Gary Blaskowiski of GE. The robotics teams received points for each programmed move of their robot which completed missions on the playing table. Judging in the competition included four parts: project presentation, teamwork, robot performance and technical knowledge.
Thumbs up to the J.C. Lynch Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization in Coward for having its second-annual canned food drive. They were able to collect nearly 2,000 non-perishable foods for the families in the Coward and Scranton area. Rachel Resler, library media specialist at the school, said contests — including a Clemson versus Carolina one — were used to get students energized to give. Each student could put a non-perishable item in either the Clemson basket or the Carolina basket. At the end of the week, principal Franklin Foster agreed to wear the winning school’s colors. As a Spartanburg native, he was very disappointed to learn Carolina, won but happily wore crimson as the school had met its goal, Resler said. “Thanks to the support of the school and local area businesses, 24 local families were given a complete Thanksgiving meal and enough food to last until Christmas,” she said.
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