Junior high team wins top award in BEST contest
By By Clif Knight, Hartselle Enquirer
Hartselle Junior High School’s newly-formed Robotics Team captured the top award and four others in the North Alabama BEST Competition at Wallace State Community College Oct. 31. It also earned the right to compete in the South’s Best Regional Robotics Championship at Auburn University Dec. 11-12.
The team claimed the BEST (Boosting Engi-neering, Science &Technology) Award based on the total number of points it scored in five separate categories. In three of those categories - Project Engineering Notebook, Oral Presen-tation and Spirit and Sportsmanship - it captured first place awards. It also was named winner of the Most Robust Robot Award.
Marshall Technical School finished second to Hartselle for the BEST Award and Arab High School earned a trip to the South Regional by winning the Robot Performance Award. Other teams vying for honors in the competition were Coosa Christian School, Walker County Center of Technology, Holly Pond High School, Guntersville High School, Blount County Center of Technology, Fairview High School. Cullman Christian Academy, Locust Fork High School, Winston County Technical Center and Cullman Middle School.
She also said judges were complimentary of the team for the manner in which it made its oral presentation.
At the South Regional, Hartselle will compete against 10 teams from Alabama, Georgia, Connecticut, Tennessee and Florida.
Harris said the team would concentrate on making improvements as it prepares for the next level of competition. “We need to speed up the action of the robot’s arms and give it a coat of paint. We’ll also work on refinements for the engineering notebook, scrapbook and booth.”
The team will hold a yard sale Nov. 21 at the dental office of Dr. Mike McCutcheon as a fundraiser. The money raised will help defray expenses for the competition at Auburn in December.
