Heartland Home Educators Students Compete in BEST Robotics
Heartland Home Educators (H.H.E.), a regional home school cooperative comprised of members from the Clinton, Warrensburg, Holden, and Knob Noster areas, are sponsoring a team of budding engineers who will compete in the B.E.S.T. robotics competition on October 25th at St. Louis University. They call themselves 'H.H.E. Stealth Robotics'.
According to the BEST Robotics website (www.BESTinc.org) "BEST is a non-profit, volunteer-based organization whose mission is to inspire students to pursuer careers in engineering, science, and technology through participation in a sports-like, science and engineering-based robotics competition." Each year there is a new theme for the competition. This year's theme is 'Just Plane Crazy!'.
The competition began on September 13th in St. Louis with the Kick-Off. Each team received identical kits of equipment (motors, r/c unit, batteries, etc.) and raw materials from which to build their robots, as well as a detailed set of game rules. Their robots can be no more than 24 pounds and must fit within a 24-inch cube. Only the raw materials provided by BEST may be used in the construction.
On Game Day the team will receive points based on their accomplishments both on and off the playing field. Their robot must be able to press a lever to open a airplane hanger door, traverse a field strewn with large obstacles, retrieve and assemble airplane parts, and then hang the completed airplanes from a magnetic mobile in the center of the playing field all within three minutes. The team must also make marketing presentations, design and build a trade show booth, find sponsors, keep an engineering log, and promote their team and BEST through all forms of media.
From beginning to end the team has only six weeks to complete these requirements. If they win in St. Louis, H.H.E. Stealth Robotics will go on to Arkansas for regional competition.
The BEST robotics web site is...
http://www.bestinc.org/MVC/
And the HHE stealth robotics team web site is...
http://stealthrobotics.110mb.com/
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