Junior High robotics team qualifies for state competition

The Perkins County Junior High robotics team qualified for state at the competition in Sidney on Saturday, Jan. 11.

The team, coached by Alexandria Linnerson, Jonette Kemling and Troy Kemling, has been practicing their skills since October 2019 and their efforts paid off on Saturday when they were ranked first in both the Core Values and Robot Games portions of the competition.

In the morning, the competition was split between three different rooms, each with their own purpose.

In one room, the team presents to two judges about the robot’s design, the programming involved and how they selected the mission for the robot game portion.

They also explained the reasoning behind their work and how the efforts were divided among the group.

In the second room, the students were tasked with creating a research project. They were given a problem and had to create a solution. This year’s task was to create a way to help the community.

The third room was the Core Values room. The competition is supposed to teach the students how to be professional, and this was their chance to display to the judges that they have developed this skill. There were six categories they were scored on, including teamwork and communication.

In the afternoon, the robot games take place. An obstacle course was presented to the students and they had to use computer programming to get the robot to complete certain missions.

The robot was built using Lego pieces and motors, and it had to be able to move on its own. No coaches were allowed to handle the robot or the programming, as all of the work must be completed by the students.

“They did a great job,” noted Linnerson.

Eighth graders Kaitlin Meyer and Kaitlyn Dolezal, and seventh graders Lane Nolt, Ryder Potts, Colson Uehling and Brecken Uehling will be attending the state championship.

State will be located at the Aerospace Museum in Ashland, Nebr. on Feb. 22.