Boyce Middle School 'Gear Grinders' Fare Well In Robotics Event

UPPER ST. CLAIR, PA - A team of Boyce Middle School sixth graders earned three first place finishes - as well as the Excellence Award - at the VEX IQ Challenge tournament. The robotics team consists of Owen Bell, Ian Dvorin, Ryan Hyatt, Rohan Mehta and Carlee Santel.

The VEX IQ Challenge - presented by the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation - involves teams of students tasked with designing and building a robot to play with other teams in a game-based engineering challenge. Classroom STEM concepts are put to the test as students learn lifelong skills in teamwork, leadership, communications, and more.

The team, nicknamed the Gear Grinders, competed against 22 teams of sixth through eighth graders from throughout the Pittsburgh region. The event was held recently at Marshall Middle School in the North Allegheny School District.

The team’s first place awards were for:

• Robot skills: The team had the highest scores in both programming and driving.

• Teamwork: The tham worked with a partner to complete robot tasks on the field

• STEM Research Project: – The team used Fortnite as an example of how math is used in artificial intelligence and machine learning.

The Excellence Award the team received was the competition’s highest honor.

“It was an exciting day, especially in the Teamwork Skills competition,” Kim Hyatt, Ryan’s mother, said in a district release. “Gear Grinders were the last match and the team before them had just posted the highest score of the day. The Gear Grinders had to score more points in order to win, but they never scored that many points before - until that moment.”

The Upper St. Clair team won by one point. The Gear Grinders now advance to the state-regional championship in March 2019.

Photo via Upper St. Clair School District.

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