2015-2016
With the completion of the new Brookside High School building, the Robotics Club soared to new heights. The dedicated STEM room opened at BHS. Besides our 3 High School VRC teams, we added 6 Elementary School VEX-IQ teams, with the assistance of elementary teacher Mr. Rosso.
We had 80 applicants we had to narrow down to 36 to make 6 VEX IQ teams. We started building in late October and went to our first competition at North Union in December. Team 6403Z was our top team, ranking #12 out of 32 in the Teamwork Rankings. Meanwhile 6403U scored 26, losing the programming skills trophy on a tiebreaker.
Our next VEX IQ tournament was our first home event. This was a great success. Team 6403Z ranked #2 in Teamwork, won the Excellence Award, and was a Teamwork champion. Teams 6403X and 6403U excelled in the Skills, winning Programming & Robot skills, respectively. All 3 teams qualified for State.
On the high school side, our first event was December 19, at Mahoning Valley. None of our teams could score a high goal, but team 6403C found their way onto the runner-up alliance!
A month later we traveled to Hilliard Bradley. Team 6403A was much improved, having a 5-1 record on the day and ranking #4 overall. Team Captain Jacob Klein became our 1st ever Alliance Captain. The team advanced to the semifinals before being eliminated.
At the Brookside VEX tournament, team 6403A was ranked 6th, and joined the #3 alliance, making the semi-finals. Team 6403B was ranked 11th and became captain of the #7 alliance.
At Cleveland State, team 6403A was ranked 4th, and became captain of the #4 alliance, working with North Union and Norwalk to push eventual world qualifier Brecksville to an unprecedented 4th match (after tying the 3rd best-of-3) before bowing out as semi-finalists. 6403A won the Create Award, for their innovative sensor design to recognize shots and speed up the flywheel.
2014-2015
The Robotics Club made great strides in 2014-2015. Mr. Spainhourd built us a homemade field and we were able to practice in a more realistic environment than our previous setup with plastic cups and tape on the floor. We expanded from 2 teams to 3. Competitions were difficult to find in Northern Ohio. We traveled to Marion, as well as a return trip to Cleveland State. Our robots performed admirably but we were unable to make the finals in either event, so we did not qualify for State.
Mr. Landis did attend 2015 VEX World Championships in Louisville, KY as a spectator and picked up some great ideas.
2013-2014
The Robotics Club at Brookside High School was formed during the 2013-2014 school year. It was decided that we would compete in VEX Robotics competitions. The VEX competition for our first year was VEX Toss-Up. Advisors were Mr. Landis and Mr. Spainhourd.
We received a generous donation from Beacon Medical Services, Inc. to fund our first robot and we also obtained a grant from the REC Foundation for a second robot!
Our first student meeting was November 4th and was attended by 11 students. Attendance varied the first few weeks, peaking at 15. In all 21 students expressed interest but eventually we had 11 committed students divided into 2 teams.
Zane State
Our first competition was January 25th, 2014 at Zane State College. We had a snow day the Friday before, but we still met at the school and spent 11 hours fine-tuning our robot and especially our autonomous programs.
Roads were snow-covered and travel was slow but the organizers waited patiently for us. We quickly checked in, set up our pit area, and headed to the arenas for our first matches. Our first ever match teamed our A team with Team 9029 from Logan Elm, and we were victorious!
Our late arrival prevented us from attempting the Programming Challenge but Hunter W. did attempt the Robot Skills Challenge.
Our A team ended up not participating in the elimination round. Our B team however was paired with Logan Elm and Tri-Valley and won 3 consecutive matches to earn the tournament championship trophy. This qualified our team for both the Ohio State High School Championship and also the CREATE U.S. Open Robotics Championship in Omaha, Nebraska.
Cleveland State
Our next match was at Cleveland State on February 8th. The B team participated in the quarterfinals. Highlights of the tournament were the B team finishing 2nd in Programming Skills and 8th in Driver Skills, and the A team finishing 4th in Programming Skills and 6th in Driver Skills.
Ohio VEX State Championship
We ended the season at the Ohio State Championship at Harding HS in Marion. Team 6403B ended the qualifying rounds ranked 16th, while 6403A was ranked 24th. In the alliance selection, 6403B was selected by NERD Nation (Norwalk) to join the #3 Alliance. We won our 1st Quarter Final, advancing to the Semis. In the Semi Finals, our alliance selected us to play all 3 rounds due to our ability to do a pull-up. We won our first match, then lost by just 4 points, when a win would have propelled us to the finals as well as qualified us for VEX Worlds!
With the completion of the new Brookside High School building, the Robotics Club soared to new heights. The dedicated STEM room opened at BHS. Besides our 3 High School VRC teams, we added 6 Elementary School VEX-IQ teams, with the assistance of elementary teacher Mr. Rosso.
We had 80 applicants we had to narrow down to 36 to make 6 VEX IQ teams. We started building in late October and went to our first competition at North Union in December. Team 6403Z was our top team, ranking #12 out of 32 in the Teamwork Rankings. Meanwhile 6403U scored 26, losing the programming skills trophy on a tiebreaker.
Our next VEX IQ tournament was our first home event. This was a great success. Team 6403Z ranked #2 in Teamwork, won the Excellence Award, and was a Teamwork champion. Teams 6403X and 6403U excelled in the Skills, winning Programming & Robot skills, respectively. All 3 teams qualified for State.
On the high school side, our first event was December 19, at Mahoning Valley. None of our teams could score a high goal, but team 6403C found their way onto the runner-up alliance!
A month later we traveled to Hilliard Bradley. Team 6403A was much improved, having a 5-1 record on the day and ranking #4 overall. Team Captain Jacob Klein became our 1st ever Alliance Captain. The team advanced to the semifinals before being eliminated.
At the Brookside VEX tournament, team 6403A was ranked 6th, and joined the #3 alliance, making the semi-finals. Team 6403B was ranked 11th and became captain of the #7 alliance.
At Cleveland State, team 6403A was ranked 4th, and became captain of the #4 alliance, working with North Union and Norwalk to push eventual world qualifier Brecksville to an unprecedented 4th match (after tying the 3rd best-of-3) before bowing out as semi-finalists. 6403A won the Create Award, for their innovative sensor design to recognize shots and speed up the flywheel.
2014-2015
The Robotics Club made great strides in 2014-2015. Mr. Spainhourd built us a homemade field and we were able to practice in a more realistic environment than our previous setup with plastic cups and tape on the floor. We expanded from 2 teams to 3. Competitions were difficult to find in Northern Ohio. We traveled to Marion, as well as a return trip to Cleveland State. Our robots performed admirably but we were unable to make the finals in either event, so we did not qualify for State.
Mr. Landis did attend 2015 VEX World Championships in Louisville, KY as a spectator and picked up some great ideas.
2013-2014
The Robotics Club at Brookside High School was formed during the 2013-2014 school year. It was decided that we would compete in VEX Robotics competitions. The VEX competition for our first year was VEX Toss-Up. Advisors were Mr. Landis and Mr. Spainhourd.
We received a generous donation from Beacon Medical Services, Inc. to fund our first robot and we also obtained a grant from the REC Foundation for a second robot!
Our first student meeting was November 4th and was attended by 11 students. Attendance varied the first few weeks, peaking at 15. In all 21 students expressed interest but eventually we had 11 committed students divided into 2 teams.
Zane State
Our first competition was January 25th, 2014 at Zane State College. We had a snow day the Friday before, but we still met at the school and spent 11 hours fine-tuning our robot and especially our autonomous programs.
Roads were snow-covered and travel was slow but the organizers waited patiently for us. We quickly checked in, set up our pit area, and headed to the arenas for our first matches. Our first ever match teamed our A team with Team 9029 from Logan Elm, and we were victorious!
Our late arrival prevented us from attempting the Programming Challenge but Hunter W. did attempt the Robot Skills Challenge.
Our A team ended up not participating in the elimination round. Our B team however was paired with Logan Elm and Tri-Valley and won 3 consecutive matches to earn the tournament championship trophy. This qualified our team for both the Ohio State High School Championship and also the CREATE U.S. Open Robotics Championship in Omaha, Nebraska.
Cleveland State
Our next match was at Cleveland State on February 8th. The B team participated in the quarterfinals. Highlights of the tournament were the B team finishing 2nd in Programming Skills and 8th in Driver Skills, and the A team finishing 4th in Programming Skills and 6th in Driver Skills.
Ohio VEX State Championship
We ended the season at the Ohio State Championship at Harding HS in Marion. Team 6403B ended the qualifying rounds ranked 16th, while 6403A was ranked 24th. In the alliance selection, 6403B was selected by NERD Nation (Norwalk) to join the #3 Alliance. We won our 1st Quarter Final, advancing to the Semis. In the Semi Finals, our alliance selected us to play all 3 rounds due to our ability to do a pull-up. We won our first match, then lost by just 4 points, when a win would have propelled us to the finals as well as qualified us for VEX Worlds!