Schools
Rockwood Rock-Bots Finish 19th in World Competition
Two teams consisting of Rockwood School District students participated this weekend in the largest international robotics challenge available.
High school members of the Rockwood School District Rock-Bots robotics competitive team finished 19th overall in the international (FIRST) competition this weekend, which was not high enough to advance to the final rounds on Saturday. The contest was held in the Edward Jones Dome at America's Center April 27-30.
' team mentor Andy Hereford said the students were disappointed at first, "but then they could see how far they advanced, over literally hundreds of teams, and they begin to appreciate their success." Hereford is the spouse of a teacher, Paige Hereford, who also mentored the district-level team.
With the FIRST program listing 349 teams in the same class, the Rock-Bots' ranking likely put them in the top quarter of teams attending this annual contest open to teams worldwide.
Find out what's happening in Eureka-Wildwoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Hereford said the Rock-Bot itself will be used for demonstrations to classes and for practice over the next few months, and then disassembled and the parts reused in future projects.
The Boson-Subatomic Particles team, representing , competed in the Tech Challenge division, which uses smaller robots. Eureka technology education teacher and team mentor Bob Spellmeyer said the team lost two out of their last three matches in the qualifying round and didn't advance to the finals, either.
Find out what's happening in Eureka-Wildwoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The multiday FIRST event also featured a Friday night concert by will.i.am.
The competition was open to the public and with free admission. It will be held in St. Louis again in 2012 and 2013.