BCMS robotics team earns state berth

December 14, 2016

Photos by Debbie Marciniak Team Omega 14910, coaches and Alpha Plus mentors. In front in the squid hat, Tyrell Wortley. Front row (left to right): Kaylee Mccabe, Alisa Hannaman, Regina Claphan, Ally Martin, Kira Carla-Hull, Blake Garcia, Tia Carla , Jacob Garrison and Logan Cuthbertson. Middle row: Alex Stella, Grace Hopkins, Morgan Moon, Hunter Rounsville, Corey Clairmont, George Balk, Alanzo Wortley, Nathan Johnson, Levi Bonnell, Cassidy Sams and Stacey Sams. Back row: Nathan Olsen, Jaak Sanders, Neil Martin and Dan Claphan. Not pictured: Liliana Brinkman, Jerry Dalton.

Boundary County Middle School robotics team Omega 14910 is gearing up for a trip to state competition in Moscow January 14 after an impressive performance on their home turf Saturday, where they won awards for best robot design and for programming. Team Omega 14910 members in deep concentration as they prepare their bots for competition Saturday. BCMS robotics, associated with the global First Lego League (FLL), was established to promote STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) through hands on learning. The program is designed to help students develop technology skills and prepare for the high school Alpha plus team. We are associated with First Lego League which is a global organization. Each team had three months to design, build, and program a robot capable of performing a series of challenges designed by FLL. This years FLL theme is Animal Allies, or how can animals and humans help each other. "Based on the buzz of the Zika virus in news, and the reports of millions of honeybees being killed by the spray used to kill the mosquitos, our team decided to focus on the issue of bio-friendly mosquito control," said coach Jacob Garrison. "Our team's idea was to innovate an existing idea. Through research we discovered that bats are an excellent mosquito consumer. We designed large bat houses that could also be used as billboards in parks, or other public areas. These billboard bat houses would increase the bat population in those areas, control the mosquito populations, and provide a self sustaining method of upkeep from the money the advertising space could generate. As a community service project, our team built several smaller bat houses and presented them to local beekeepers to help control the mosquitoes near their bee hives so that spray would not be needed." This was the first year BCMS teams have been able to compete, and to ensure they could, they decided to host the tournament, inviting teams from around the region. "Because of foul weather issues in the past which kept us from being able to compete, we decided to host a regional competition this year," Garrison said. "This was a huge undertaking, and it was planned, organized and operated by Jaak and Cynthia Sanders. We hosted 10 teams in this tournament, most of them from Post Falls. This competition was held Saturday, December 10 and extremely successful. It was run by BCMS students, Alpha plus members, BCMS and BFHS staff, as well as community volunteers." Teams were judged on their projects, robot design and core values, along with the robot game game challenge. Team Omega 14910 did extremely well at this regional tournament. "We won an award for best robot design, which encompasses the physical design and operation of the bot, as well as the programming," Garrison said. "Our overall performance earned us an invitation to the state level tournament in Moscow on January 14. We are currently focused on perfecting our presentation and gameplay as well as fund raising to help get our team to the competition." Those interested in supporting team Omega 14910 can contact Mr. Garrison, who teaches eighth grade science, at (208) 267-5852 or by email at jacob.garrison@mail.bcsd101.com.