Children compete with robots at Sealston Elementary School in King George.
Seventeen teams consisting of elementary and middle school-age children squared off at Sealston Elementary School last weekend for the King George Robotics Contest as engineers and scientists from the greater Naval Support Facilities Dahlgren and Indian Head communities helped arrange the event.
‘‘With exception of one Maryland team, all of the teams were from the King George County area,” said Dr. Ray Gamache, a physicist who works for the Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division.
‘‘The teams were judged in mainly four areas: an interview section, where they explained their project design; a teamwork section where they were required to construct a model of a windmill using only uncooked spaghetti and miniature marshmallows as building materials; a research section where they explained a future vehicle they would construct; and the actual competition of their robotics project. Each section was assigned 25 points to determine the final grade;” he said.
A rubric also was used to help determine how each project was judged. It tested the innovative design of the robot; the strategy, process and problem solving of the project; plus factors such as locomotion and navigation of the robot, programming, overall design, structural integrity and the knowledge of children doing the work.
‘‘The contest helps kids develop engineering skills and teamwork,” Gamache said. ‘‘We had two divisions, elementary school grades 4 through 6 and middle school grades 7 and 8. We had a pretty good turnout too.”
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