Sherman High School Advances to State Robotics Competition

In their first year back in competition, Sherman High School students are headed to state after a great performance at the Viking BEST (Boosting Engineering Science & Technology) Robotics HUB event on Nov. 14.

Sherman High School placed third overall in the competition and earned awards for Most Elegant Robot Design, Highest Spirit & Sportsmanship and Best Exhibit Booth.

“My team has put in so much work over the last eight weeks. From very late afterschool practices to activities on Saturdays, these kids have shown up and given it their all!” said McKenna Purvines, SHS BEST Robotics coach. “Despite the amount of work we have to complete to get ready for state, my team is so excited to jump back in, revamp the robot, and crush the competition.”

A combined team from Piner and Sherman middle schools placed sixth and earned the Best Team Shirt award. This was their very first year in competition, and they were also the only middle school team to compete.

Grayson College launched the Viking BEST Robotics Hub this year with help from a Texas Workforce Commission Youth Robotics grant. The SHS and the middle school team coded and tested their robots within just eight weeks, and they also had to keep engineering notebooks and create booths to showcase their robot.

“They learned how to solder and wire motors and batteries and picked up coding principles,” Purvines said. “The challenge built up the team support system and how the students come together to solve problems.”

All teams are given a specific set of parts to build their robot, which needs to complete a series of tasks. These tasks all need to be done within three minutes, and teams are scored by how well they complete them.

“It’s been a good learning experience,” said Sherman Middle School seventh grader Matthias Small. “Overall, it’s been fun. I usually can’t wait for the team meetings on Friday.”

“The most challenging part has been the coding aspect of it,” said SHS junior Kalin Greenwood. “You have to give it certain logic blocks to be able to do something, and when something doesn’t work, you have to take everything apart.”

BEST Robotics is an official University Interscholastic League (UIL) division and aims to inspire students to pursue careers in engineering and robotics through hands-on learning opportunities in coding and fabrication.

“Robotics combines a lot of things kids find interesting,” said Jenny Richard, the coach of the middle school BEST Robotics team. “From robotics, kids can go different ways, like into engineering or robotics itself.”

The Texas BEST Robotics Championship will be held Dec. 11-13 in Fair Park. Members of the SHS team hope the team’s performance at the local competition will raise its profile within the school.

“I hope more people join the Robotics Club next year,” Greenwood said.