Competition #1// Longmont, CO

Team Chazak – also known as Team 974X – was pretty excited that one, foggy, cold winter morning of January 24. They had spent almost five months building their robot, scrimmaging on Monday afternoons, and practicing their speeches and presentations for the judges at competitions. All that hard work was about to be put to the test as the four members of Team Chazak and their families arrived at an elementary school which was hosting the Vex IQ competition.

The playing fields were set up in the gym of the school, and in the cafeteria nearby were the team’s pit areas. The boys got their stuff situated, brought out their robot, and got ready to play! The competitions are very organized, and there are a lot of other teams in Northern Colorado, so we (the families) waited anxiously in the bleachers for the team to play their first match. When the boys finally stepped up and began to position their robot, we all crowded as close as we could to the playing fields to watch and cheer them on. The timer began, and BEEP! they were off! The robot maneuvered down the first row of blocks and grabbed onto the green row, pulling it back all the way into the scoring zone, and then lifted all three green blocks in one swift, practiced motion, and set it down expertly in a nice and neat tower. The announcer was shocked, as were the other team on the field and the spectators. But within a couple more seconds both team Chazak and the other robot had pulled enough blocks into the scoring zone to be in first place. We were all ecstatic!

The day continued in this fashion, with the boys scoring enough points (together with the alliance teams) to stay in first place the entire time. A couple of hours into the whole event, the team left their robot in the pit area and got ready to present their STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) research project on elevators. Complete with their display board and small model, they walked into the judging room and gave their presentation. About five minutes later they emerged, carrying their board and props with them, smiling large, happy smiles. We were all smiling, too, and were excited to see how everything turned out!

The competition began to wind down an hour or so after the lunch break, and soon it was time for the awards’ ceremony. All of the onlookers now stood, anxiously awaiting the results of the day. Many different awards are given out to teams that demonstrate teamwork, overall excellence, knowledge of their STEM subject, etc. The announcer gave a small speech which included congratulating everyone for their fantastic performance and cooperation, and then got on to awarding teams. At the first award, we all erupted into applause, because our team won the Skills Award! Two more awards went by, and then Chazak also won the Programming Award! Wow, two awards?! Well, before the ceremony was over, the boys had to go back up to receive two more awards (the STEM Award, and the Alliance Award)! And, to top it all off, Team Chazak was awarded the overall Excellence Award. We couldn't believe it! The boys were all smiles! It was a good end to a good day, and we all couldn’t wait to see how the next competition would turn out!

#Chazak #vexiq #competition