Parent Teacher Magazine Gaston County School May/June 2015 | Page 7

Winners named in annual RoboGASTON competition Cramerton Middle School team wins annual RoboGASTON competition The gymnasium at East Gaston High School was filled with cheers and excitement Saturday, March 7 as hundreds of elementary and middle school students showed off their computer programming skills during RoboGASTON 2015. The event was the culmination of a year of practice and learning for the students, who have concentrated on how to build and program LEGO robots to carry out “missions” such as lifting LEGO bricks and pushing a ball into a net. RoboGASTON challenged the students to earn points through robot performance, teamwork challenges, and research project presentations. At the end of the day, the Cramerton Middle School Chefs team was crowned the 2015 RoboGASTON champion, outscoring the 38 other teams. Coach Ray Cloyd, a business education teacher at Cramerton Middle, said he was proud of his students. “The team is full of great students. They are intelligent, inquisitive and innovative.” The Chefs compete wearing aprons and chef hats and focused their research project for the year on learning how to cook. Cloyd said the students learned how to work as a team through the year and focused on success at RoboGASTON after competing in the state tournament in January. “They came home without a trophy from Greensboro, and I believe that motivated them to work even harder as a team and ultimately win RoboGASTON,” he explained. The other Gaston County Schools teams moving on to the regional championship are the Belmont Middle School “Beauty and the Bots,” the Brookside Elementary “Bullbots,” the Rankin Elementary “Robo Builders,” the Tryon Elementary “French Fries,” the Pleasant Ridge Elementary “RoboPanthers,” the New Hope Elementary “Blue LEGO Warriors,” and the Woodhill Elementary “Hornet Droids.” Below is a list of the award winners from RoboGASTON 2015. n Grand Champion: Cramerton Middle School “Chefs” n First Place Middle School: Belmont Middle School “Beauty and the Bots” n Second Place Middle School: W.C. Friday Middle School “Cav-Bots” n First Place Elementary School: Woodhill Elementary “Hornet Droids” n Second Place Elementary School: Brookside Elementary “Bullbots” n First Place Project Presentation: Belmont Central Element