The annual Central Valley (CV) Robotics Competition is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing a love of technology and science to students in the San Joaquin Valley. The competition took place, Nov. 15 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Glacier Point Middle School.

Participants of the CV Robotics include campus sixth graders Bryce Foshee, Hunter Raynes, Trent Ferguson, Noah Sanchez, David Castillo and Abbie Holck. Their team, “Eagle-Bots” won first place in the qualifying tournaments, and are soon to compete in the championships.

Bryce, along with the other members of the team, has been working on their project since early Sept.

“So basically, our objective was that the robot completes a set of obstacle courses,” Bryce said. “My favorite part of the competition was the MathHunters section, where we involve lights in a hallway to learn math better.”

Members of the Eagle-Bots are in the process of creating an app called “MathHunters,” which is an activity similar to a scavenger hunt but takes people on an adventure of finding clues and calculating their answers. They are currently coding the app, so it will take over a year until the app is ready.

Eagle-Bots coach and Bryce’s father Robert Foshee, has been a resource for the team. His role is to give the team guidance and provide structure, encouragement, and a fun time.

“I think their project was very creative,” Robert said. “They decided to answer the question of how someone at any age can get better at learning math concepts. They interviewed people, brainstormed ideas and came up with their idea of MathHunters. They have presented their project to classrooms and administrators and have received great responses.”

I think their project was very creative. They decided to answer the question of how someone at any age can get better at learning math concepts. They interviewed people, brainstormed ideas and came up with their idea of MathHunters. They have presented their project to classrooms and administrators and have received great responses. –Robert Foshee

Ferguson enjoys this competition because of the different aspects that robotics offers. In this competition the team is building a robot to compete with other robots and people from other schools.

“It’s really fun to be building it with my friends and to get better at what what we are doing,” Ferguson said. “We are programming it to do different missions and to get points from each particular mission. The more points you get it can move you higher to get better rewards. We are in 11th place so far. There’s different parts to the project such as the robot programming part. There is also the missions part where you can get points and the project part that will help the world do different stuff. I am personally working on the programming of the robot and I am doing quite well and doing mostly good at designing the robot parts.”

The championship tournament will be held at Alta Sierra Intermediate School, Dec. 13, 2014. The winners of the Championships will compete at the World Tournament, which will be held in St. Louis, MO, April 22-25, 2015.

This writer can be reached via Twitter: @mattgarza2017.

For more features, read the Nov. 20 article, Thanksgiving #FCgivesthanks: Join the Discussion.