Members of Robotics Club gear up for approaching tournaments

GRUNDY CENTER – For the past several months, middle school and high school students in Rob Gingery’s Robotics Club have been tinkering and toiling over their robots, preparing them for the upcoming tournaments.
In the middle school, three teams of students competed in the regional tournament in December. One lucky team, named ‘The Clueless,’ will move on to compete in the state tournament held at the Iowa State University College of Engineering on January 15.
“We haven’t had any Lego League teams qualify for state since 2011, so them qualifying this year is a pretty big deal,” Gingery said, adding that the group will be competing against 120 other teams from around the state.
This year’s qualifying team is made up of the following seventh and eighth grade students: Sam Bingman, Soren Cleveland, Collin Sager, Landon Decker, Tanner Hoeg, Connor Koch, Sam Meyer, Donny Pruisner and Dylan Van Hauen.
At the tournament, judges will grade the team’s robot based on its ability to drive itself autonomously while completing certain tasks. The students are also expected to give a presentation and take part in an interview with the judges.
At the high school level, the tournaments are organized a bit differently: the students compete in a league with other teams from around Eastern Iowa in a six-meet season. The winners of the league then move on to the state competition, then to the national, then to the world competition.
After successfully making it through the first five regional meets, ‘The Grundy Center Spartobots,’ will now be competing in the league championship in La Porte City on January 14. If they make it in the Top 2 of the league championship, they will have a guaranteed spot at the state competition.
Currently, the ‘Spartobots’ are tied for first place in the league.
For the full story, see the January 12 edition of The Grundy Register.