SciTech Tuesday: Museum Hosts Second Annual Robotics Challenge

Middle school students from across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas converged on the US Freedom Pavilion: The Boeing Center on Saturday for the Museum’s second annual Robotics Challenge. Working together over a period of four months, teams designed, built, and programmed an autonomous robot using the LEGO® MINDSTORMS® robotics platform.
Presented with D-Day related challenges, the teams scored points on the WWII-themed playing field by completing missions like deciphering an encrypted message, avoiding beach obstacles, unloading soldiers from a Higgins boat and delivering airborne troops to the drop zone. In addition to building a robot, each team completed a research project in which they designed a device to improve the safety of troops landing on Omaha and Utah beaches. Teams built a model of their device, wrote a government proposal and filmed a promotional video.
The Grand Champion Award was presented to the team who embodied the spirit of innovation and teamwork by excelling in all areas of the Challenge including robot design, robot performance, and the project. Robot Performance Awards were presented to the teams scoring the most points during the robot missions. Teams competed in two matches and their highest score was considered. Project Awards were presented to teams who designed an innovative and effective device, communicated clearly through a cohesive presentation. Teams recognized for robot design utilized outstanding engineering design and a well-planned strategy to produce an efficient, effective, and reliable robot. Judges awards were presented to teams deserving special recognition from the judges.
AWARD WINNERS:
Grand Champion: Tiger Techs from Florida Avenue Elementary in Slidell, LA
Robot Performance
- 1st Place: Tiger Techs from Florida Avenue Elementary in Slidell, LA
- 2nd Place: Lego Warriors from Radney Elementary in Alexander City, AL
- 3rd Place: Techno Tic Tocks Westdale Heights Academic Magnet in Baton Rouge, LA
Project
- 1st Place: Purple Phyre from Mandeville Junior High in Mandeville, LA for their Amphi-Higgin boat
- 2nd Place: The Starry Knights from Episcopal High School of Baton Rouge, LA for their Turtle Tents
- 3rd Place: The Riveters from the Academy of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans, LA for their Dwyer water vessel
Robot Design
- 1st Place: Mercy Robotics from Our Lady of Mercy in Baton Rouge, LA
- 2nd Place: The Avengers from Metairie Academy in Metairie, LA
- 3rd Place: Faith Christian Robotics from Faith Christian Academy in Alexander City, AL
Judges Award for WWII Themed Costume and Team Spirit: The Starry Knights from Episcopal High School of Baton Rouge, LA
Judges Award for Teamwork and Sportsmanship: The MBS Pelibot Bombers from Most Blessed Sacrament of Baton Rouge, LA
- The Tiger Techs from Florida Avenue Elementary, Grand Champion and 1st Place in Robot Performance
- The Lego Warriors from Radney Elementary, 2nd Place in Robot Performance
- The Techno Tic Tocks, 3rd Place in Robot Performance
- Purple Phyre from Mandeville Junior High celebrates their 1st place win for the project.
- The Starry Knights from Episcopal High School of Baton Rouge, 2nd Place Project and Judges Award for costume and team spirit
- The Riveters from the Academy of the Sacred Heart, 3rd Place Project
- Mercy Robotics from Our Lady of Mercy, 1st
Place in Robot Design
- The Avengers from Metairie Academy, 2nd Place in Robot Design
- Faith Christian Robotics from Faith Christian Academy, 3rd Place in Robot Design
- MBS Pelibot Bombers from Most Blessed Sacrament, Judges Award for teamwork and sportsmanship
- Students from John Dibert Community School prepare for their match.
- Students from SciTech Academy get ready to start their robot.
- Members of the Titanium Owls from Lake Harbor Middle School watch their robot deliver the canister.
- St. George's Episcopal School students with their project model.
- Robot matches in the US Freedom Pavilion: The Boeing Center
- The "cool" robot
For more information about robotics at The National WWII Museum, visit www.nationalww2museum.org/robotics
Post by Annie Tête, STEM Education Coordinator

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