TEMPLE, Texas (KXXV) — Two robotics teams from Temple Independent School District have qualified for the BEST Robotics State Competition, which will allow them to compete among the best in the state.
Temple High School’s Wildcat Workforce team and Travis Science Academy’s Lunar Mustangs secured their spots at the state level following strong performances at a meet hosted by Temple ISD on November 23.
The teams designed and built their robots six weeks before the competition, and they were judged on various factors during the competition itself.
The teams also had to produce an engineering notebook documenting the design and construction of the robot, create a marketing presentation, complete a team exhibit, and interview the judges.
Teams could also get points for spirit and sportsmanship.
Temple High School’s Wildcat Workforce team qualified for the state competition and won the Most Robust Robot award.
“I’m kind of surprised that we qualified because none of us had done this before,” THS junior Andres Gomez said.
“It has been hectic and stressful because we were in a time crunch — it takes a lot of math and expertise because it is hard to build a robot from scratch.”
Christian Mendez is a teacher in the Temple High School Career and Technical Education department and sponsors the Wildcat Workforce robotics team.
He's excited about the team’s success and hopes the students will learn lessons beyond the competition.
“I am super proud of them — they are good kids and want to learn,” Mendez said.
“It is good to see them put their minds to something, and that hard work pays off. With hard work and dedication, anything is possible.”
The Travis Science Academy Lunar Mustangs were the only middle school team to qualify for state from the competition, beating out four high school teams to advance.
They won the BEST Award for the team that best embodied the concept of Boosting Engineering, Science, and Technology through several criteria.
The Lunar Mustangs also won the Best Engineering Drawings Award during the competition. The TSA robotics team is in its second year but has yet to compete against other schools before this year.
Coordinator of CTE for Temple ISD Brianna Hubnik helped organize and oversee the competition.
“The kids had to make some adjustments as they were going along and overcome some things during the competition,” Hubnik said.
“Seeing their reaction when they got their robot back to the platform at the end made it all worth it.”
The BEST Robotics State Competition will be held December 4-7 in Dallas.
Click here to learn more about the competition and follow along with the teams.
