Richland robotics team thriving

By Billy Woods

WM School District

The Richland Elementary robotics team adopted Animal Allies as its theme for the First Lego League Challenge.

The Animal Allies Challenge is comprised of: The project, The Robot Game and Core Values. In The Project, students research an identify a problem that occurs when animals and people interact.

The Richland team recently invited local resident Kyler Reschke, who lost his eyesight when he was three and surgery due to cancer in his eyes. His dog, Beau, is now his eyes. His father, Paul, brought him to meet with the team during a meeting at the Academies of West Memphis.

Teams then identify a possible solution that improves that interaction in some way for the people, animals or both.

The team then shares its process and solution with a professional in the field.

The Robot Game is a field with 15 missions to be completed by a student-built autonomous robot. It is a smart robot that can be programmed through a computer. Some missions include transporting a shark to a destination without the shark touching the sides of its tank, bringing a pig without back legs back to a base where prosthetic legs are attached and then sending the pig to live in the farm.

Teams receive points for each mission successfully completed. Points accumulated  from the project, the robot game and core values displayed by the team determine which teams move from local to regional to national competitions.

Coaches are Suzanne Elmore, Mary Beth Gunter and Amanda Webb.

"This is our rookie year and we are learning something new with each practice," said Webb. "We want the students to be exposed to more engineering-based opportunities and have a little fun along the way."

The Richland robotics team members include Emily Thorne, Meredith Grafton, Hannah Dory, Isabella Hinze, Ella Grace Murphree, Hannah Grace Rose, Matthew Collins, Alex Webb, Nicholas King and Carter Henson.