by Bill Knowles
TRINIDAD — Teams from seven schools around the Raton Basin area met in the Scott Gymnasium on Saturday, October 24, to show the best mining robots in the Southern Colorado BEST program.
The teams fielded robots they designed and programmed and presented with displays the work that went into their creations, information that helped determine the winners.
The seven teams represented some of the most gifted and talented high school and middle school students in the area. Schools represented in the event were; Trinidad Middle School, Primero School, Hoehne School, Branson School, Raton High School, South Conejos School, and Swink School.
The Boosting Engineering, Science, and Technology or BEST program is a national program designed to encourage students to excel in the disciplines through real world application and has a chapter at Trinidad State Junior College.
Each school received two boxes of material, including driver motors, control boxes, processors, plywood, hardware, and wiring. Each robot had to have the same size and weight, using the same materials.
The teams met at their schools under the supervision of a teacher and a mentor. Students had to journal their journey through the process of designing, building and programing their robots, using information from their local school’s science, technology, engineering, and math programs in the six weeks they were given for the project.
This year’s game scenario was titled the “2015 Pay Dirt” game, and was held on a 24 foot by 24 foot game field with mining and economic themes. Each field was divided into four colored quadrants, which were divided into three mine levels along with a shared sublevel. Four teams competed simultaneously in three minute matches. They had to harvest from five materials at various depths. The robots also had to repair broken pipes and ventilation systems in the tunnels.
As in the real mining industry, success in the competition on was determined by net profit set by the market values of the commodities the robots mined, which changed over time by the market forces of supply and demand. This determined the points scored by each team, so the priority of minerals mined by any given team changed over the course of the game. The price of the commodities was adjusted between the seeding round, the semifinal round, and the finals.
The longest round of the game was the seeding round where Trinidad, Raton, Branson, South Conejos, Swink, and Primero all made the cut and advanced to the semi-finals. South Conejos, Branson, Raton, and Trinidad all made it into the finals.
Two teams took first place prize and qualified for the regionals, which will be held in Fort Smith, Arkansas for the Regional BEST Competition in early December. Trinidad Middle School took first place in the robot competition, and Raton High School took first place in the BEST competition.
Photo by Greg Boyce
Photo by Greg Boyce
