Iola Robotics building success
In a short amount of time, a small school in Grimes County is building a big legacy with their Robotics program.
UIL Robotics began as a pilot program during the 2015-2016 school year. After three successful years as a pilot program, Robotics became an official UIL contest beginning with the 2018-2019 school year. Iola has advanced to the UIL Robotics State Contest both years of the program’s short history.
The competition consists of building a robot, a marketing presentation, engineering notebook, marketing booth and a spirit award. Schools only have eight weeks to complete all components. The team attends the kickoff event the first weekend of September where they receive their kit to build a robot and learn what problem they will need to accomplish at the events.
Iola, who has 17 team members, competed in the North Houston Hub on Nov. 5, placing third out of 18 schools. Their finish qualified the team for the state meet in Frisco Dec. 1-3. Out of 72 schools, Iola advanced to the semifinals where they finished fifth overall.
“I like the idea of getting a problem and having to try to build something to fix it,” said Cadence Shive for his reason joining the team. He said he enjoys the invention process.
Grant Goodney said throughout the year they have become more of a team and have really bonded. “At the start of last year, it was individuals doing one thing at a time, but this year we have grown more as a team and have done more stuff together.”
Team sponsor, Krisha Goodney elaborated on the team concept. “There are so many different requirements they have to do, so last year I assigned things to each student or a couple students. This year it was more of a group process.”
Being a successful team has its challenges. “Problem solving has been a learning curve for me,” explained Cade Walton. “In the state competition our robot broke a lot and we had to think on the go to fix it. We had to figure out how to solve the main problem we were facing, and each team did it a different way and we found our way and it was successful.”
Brian Crosby is grateful that Iola offers the robotics program. “I have always wanted to be an engineer and get into a good engineering school. So, having something like this where you are introduced to the thinking process and starting from scratch, having to design and engineer a project. That gives an opportunity that was never there before to help me set up for that future and get into colleges from that and have a good base in that field.”
The team also got to work with an engineering student from Texas A&M, Jaxton Kilpatrick, as their mentor. Crosby said Jaxton helped the team with the way they approached problems. “He would ask the questions that needed to be asked to get us thinking the right way.”
Teams utilize an array of skills to be competitive. Mary Womack was a huge factor in the high marketing scores Iola received. “The aim of our marketing group was to sell the robot and explain to the judges that came in everything about our robot and our community outreach and our product.” Womack said part of the marketing included a basketball game to show distribution.
Funding
Iola Robotics has sponsors that help fund the program including: Enel Green Power, Kay Partnership and All Solar Texas.
Additional funding is generated by the Iola Youth Summer Robotics Camp hosted by the team. Children get the opportunity to learn about robots, build robots and compete in various competitions. The program is more than a great fundraiser, it builds interest in the younger generation.
For more information about Iola Robotics, email email kgoodney@iolaisd.net.