THE SHOALS-The excitement is building around the BEST Robotic Competition this year! This coming Saturday, September 26, 2015, 10 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. the Shoals Chamber of Commerce and Northwest-Shoals Community College will host 24 schools at the 2015 Mall Day (robot practice driving) of the BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology) Robotics Competition.
The season Kicked-Off on August 29. Teams have been working on their robot design and engineering process for four weeks. Mall Day will be their first opportunity to test their robot designs on the actual playing field before Game Day on October 10.
BEST invites middle and high school student teams will build one-of-a-kind robots with only the materials provided to each team by the Hub (the Chamber and NW-SCC). These robots are built to accomplish the specific challenges of this year’s game – Pay Dirt. This year, each team will design a robot to accomplish various tasks in a simulated mine, that is too dangerous for humans to enter. As the teams mine the various ores contained in the fictitious mine, the ores’ values (point value) will change on the “commodities market.” Depending on which ores are mined more or less, so teams must be ready to adjust their mining strategies according to those point value shifts.
BEST Robotics’ long term goal strives for students to become interested in careers in 
science, technology, engineering and math (S.T.E.M.), while including educational content about various real world industries. This year’s game theme will not only teach these principles, but may help boost entrance into career paths surrounding the mining industry and the commodities markets, perhaps introducing some students to new areas of interest. As part of each team’s Project Engineering Notebook, they must include a research paper on the mining industry and how it affects the commodities markets.
In addition to the Robotics game challenge, the students must compile a comprehensive Project Engineering Notebook, and are encouraged to develop an entire “company” around their product. The teams have the option to compete in an Oral Marketing Presentation, to design and build a Trade Show Booth, a web site, a creative video about their product or their company, team-wear designs and more. The event has the feel of a good basketball championship in cheering, excitement and noise-level!
BEST Robotics 6-week challenge presents real-world situations the students might find in the workplace. This program initiates critical thinking and problem solving skills, tunes time management and encourages teamwork. 
BEST is free to participating schools. Students from counties in Alabama and Tennessee have joined the Northwest Alabama BEST Robotics hub to participate in this exciting event that enhances students’ career and workforce knowledge and skills. While balancing school and other extracurricular activities, the students have only 6-weeks to complete the design, engineering, building and marketing process. They will build, test and redesign the robot, as well as develop all their company’s marketing elements by Game Day on October 10.
All BEST events are free. The public is welcome and encouraged to attend:
- “Mall Day” (robot driving practice day), Saturday, September 26, 10 a.m. – 1:00 p.m., Florence Mall, Zale’s Court, Florence.
- BEST Game Day, Saturday, October 10, Northwest-Shoals Community College gym, Muscle Shoals. The doors will open at 8 a.m. The games should begin around 9:30 a.m. and usually concludes around 5 p.m.
The Shoals Chamber of Commerce and NW-SCC are currently looking for judges and volunteers for the competition, October 10, as well as Engineering Notebook judges, Thursday evening, October 8, 5 – 8:30 p.m. Anyone interested can contact Stephanie Newland at the Shoals Chamber of Commerce [snewland@shoalschamber.com, (256) 764-4661] to register as a volunteer or for more information.
2015 PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS
| Bankhead Middle School |
| Brooks High School |
| Cherokee High School |
| Colbert County High School |
| Creekside Academy |
| Covenant Christian School |
| Deshler Middle School (new!) |
| Double Springs Middle School (new!) |
| Haleyville Center of Technology |
| Lauderdale County High School |
| Lexington High School |
| Loretto High School |
| Meek High School (new!) |
| Moulton Middle / Lawrence County High |
| Muscle Shoals Career Academy |
| Phil Campbell High School |
| Russellville City Schools |
| Red Bay High School (new!) |
| Rogers High School (new!) |
| Shoals Christian School |
| Tharptown High School (new!) |
| Waterloo School |
| Wilson High School |
| Winfield Middle School |
The Shoals Chamber of Commerce and Northwest-Shoals Community College would like to thank our local sponsors. This event would not be possible without their help.
2015 BEST ROBOTICS SPONSORS
THANK YOU to our 2015 Sponsors & Partners:
PLATINUM
– BVI / TVA Retirees
– Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Huntsville
– TVA
GOLD
– SSWA Recycling
– Flexco
– Best Buy
– KISS-FM
– Applied Chemical Technology
SILVER
– Allstate Insurance, Teresa Rogers
– Civitan
– ATN
– Wells Fargo Foundation
– Walmart, Hough Road, Florence
BRONZE
– Tri-Cities Manufacturing
– Southwire
– Firestone Building Products
BEST FRIEND
– Listerhill Credit Union
– Constellium
IN-KIND
– Florence Mall
– Life Data Labs
– Tennessee Valley BEST (Calhoun)
GRANT
– Alabama Office of Workforce Development
MEDIA RELEASE/SHOALS CHAMBER/Stephanie Newland, VP of Workforce Readiness
