After a two-year hiatus the Powell Middle School robotics club returned with a new coach and saw a team grab a second place finish during this year’s First Lego League State Robotics competition.

In addition to a second place finish, the team also took home a first place trophy for robot performance, meaning Powell’s robot was the best built. The Wyoming championship featured 44 teams of students in fourth to eighth grade with the Tongue River Middle School Deceptacons taking the Champion Award (first place).

The robotics club had three teams of six to eight people with one chosen to go to state. The selected  team was made up of eighth grade students Calvin Opps and Josh Waite, who had previously competed in the robotics club. Also on the team were seventh grade students Hunter Taylor, Tyler Kruger and Orin Onstine. Sixth grade student Wyatt Burns competed and made state his first year in the club. Leon Miller, the science teacher for Park 1 Virtual Academy, stepped into the role of coach.

“I did a robotics thing amongst my elementary school, where we competed against each other in our elementary school challenge,” Taylor said. “But again, we didn’t go to [First Lego League] and I found that going [First Lego League] was definitely a lot cooler than just competing amongst your fourth and fifth grade classmates.”

Onstine said that it was intimidating to see other teams that were performing at a high level, and acknowledged that they held their own.

All of the team members except for Burns, who was not present for the interview, said they look forward to competing in high school. Some students are so excited they are already involved at the high school level. Opps said that he and Waite have been working with high school students to build a robot in their free time and compete at the high school level as an eighth grade team.

Miller congratulated the club and the team that started in October, which is late in the middle school robotics season.

Despite all of the success, Miller knows the rebooted robotics club has room to improve and is already looking to the next competition in February.

Ahead of that, Miller is helping the kids learn from each other through club presentations. Students will also be split into smaller groups and will be visited by members of the community who have a background in mechanics and robotics. 

Software compatibility issues led to glitches at the state competition as well as issues for sixth and seventh grade students who don’t have access to eighth grade computer science technology.

But fundraising is underway to provide students with newer and more compatible equipment, and in February, Powell Middle School students will be able to dance the night away while their entry fees support the robotics club.