MUSCLE SHOALS-The Shoals Chamber of Commerce and Northwest-Shoals Community College will host the 2018 BEST Robotics Game Day Competition on Saturday, October 6 at the Northwest-Shoals Community College gymnasium.
This year’s theme is Current Events. Each team has created a robot to accomplish various tasks to assist with cleaning up the plastic trash that collects in the oceans’ currents in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Team’s robots will collect the trash, recycle it and build artificial reefs with the assistance of their field engineer and field scientist.
BEST Robotics 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. Middle and high school teams have worked since August 25 to design and create the engineering process for their unique robots built from materials provided by the Hub (the Chamber and NW-SCC). These robots are built to accomplish specific challenges at Game Day. This year, those tasks will assist our fire & rescue professionals.
In addition to the Robotics game challenge, students must compile a comprehensive engineering notebook, and are encouraged to develop a mock company around their product. They have the option to compete in an oral marketing presentation, trade show booth, website design and other components of making a company successful.
“BEST Robotics presents real-world situations the students might find in the workplace,” says Stephanie Newland, VP of Education & Workforce Readiness at the Shoals Chamber of Commerce. “This program initiates critical thinking and problem solving skills, tunes time management and encourages teamwork.”
The Northwest Alabama BEST Robotics hub includes students from counties in Alabama.
BEST game day is free to the public. Doors will open at 8:00 AM and games will begin at 9:30 AM and end at 5:00 PM.
To learn more about BEST Robotics, visit www.nwalabamabest.org.
