279+ participate in the RAMTEC Vex Robotics Holiday Classic
The three-day RAMTEC Vex Robotics Holiday Classic was held at Tri-Rivers in Marion during the holiday break. Thirty Vex IQ Teams from Fairbanks, Hayes, North Union and Pleasant Elementary School as well as Grant, Pleasant and North Union Middle Schools competed for 6 Ohio State Vex IQ Robotics Championships qualifying bids. Twenty- six middle and high school teams competed in the RAMTEC Holiday Vex Skills and Holiday Shootout events as well. More than 279 students participated in the event, according to Ritch Ramey, RAMTEC Ohio Coordinator.
“The event was meant to be a fun experience for students, as well as educational robotic team building activity to do over the holiday season,” said Ramey “It also exposed them and their families to the new state of the art RAMTEC training center for high school and adult training in robotics, automation CNC machining and welding,” said Ramey. Marion’s RAMTEC facility is the training center for the 9 RAMTEC sites now in Ohio. Students in attendance were treated to free lunches and a RAMTEC Holiday Classic T-shirt—all sponsored by RAMTEC Ohio, SMEEF PRIME, Depco llc, Honda Foundation and Consolidated Electric Coop grants.
Engineering awards judges were Amy Washburn of River Valley Middle School and Mark Edington RAMTEC Robotics Coordinator. “The students’ interviewing skills, building knowledge and engineering notebooks were exceptional,” said Edington. The Hayes team was recently started as a school project by RAMTEC Engineering Junior Faith Demico. Demico and Hayes teacher Kari Thoman found victory in their very first Vex IQ event. “Faith and fellow classmates Canyon Gamble and Seth Reece have done an amazing job in a short period of time getting the Hayes Elementary teams team prepared for the event. They did not even have teams four weeks ago. They are tremendous assets to our robotics program,” said Ramey.
The top high school Skills performers in Programming Skills from Harding 4805x team members were Dan Rollins, Clayton Sloan, John Thacker, and Billy Davenport with a state record 144 points. That places them 44th in the world. Ridgedale’s 6302y team members Jaylin Tyler and Mitchel Reasoner won the Robot Drivers skills with a score of 144 points that places them 2nd in the state and 132nd in the world. The middle school skills programming and Robot Driver contests were won by North Unions 4810a. The Wildcats team of Avery Zwayer, Gage Zwayer and Jared Smith scored 105 points for 2nd in the state and 261st in the world in Robot driver skills. They then set the state record with 122 points in programming skills that places them 101st in the world for middle school teams.
