Photo/ Jennifer Daniel

By Courtney Almeida

Robotics Tournament

E.E. Oliver Elementary School hosts Robotics Tournament

Apr 6, 2019 | 7:00 AM

E.E. Oliver Elementary School in Fairview will be hosting its third annual Robotics Tournament on April 10. This year the tournament that sees teams in attendance from all throughout Northern Alberta will have approximately 170 entries competing at the event.

About 30 teams will be competing, the majority coming from Holy Family Catholic Region and Peace River School Division. Teams are made up from between 2 to 10 students each. 15 different challenges are designed for students from grade 1 to 12.

Robots are made from, “Lego for the most part but this is the first year that I have opened it up for students to bring other kinds of robots. There’s a number of different companies that make different kinds of robots but most of the robots that come into this tournament are made from Lego kits,” says Jennifer Daniel, Inclusive Literacy Coach at E.E. Oliver Elementary School.

Daniel brought the Robotics Tournament to E.E. Oliver Elementary School after attending a similar event at another school. She had the idea to trying hosting, after learning that the other school wouldn’t be running the program anymore. Three years later, E.E. Oliver Elementary School is still hosting the one-of-a-kind event.

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Photo/Jennifer Daniel

To be able to compete in the Robotics Tournament, all robots are required to be fully automated and programmed by students.

“It’s definitely taught in school. It depends on the teacher, it depends on the grade as to how it gets applied but the basic concept of coding in schools, is an up and coming thing that’s been apart of classrooms for a couple of years now. Its definitely going to be included in the new curriculum that’s coming out shortly,” said Daniel.

Most High Schools are already offering robotics, coding and programming courses for credits.

“It’s a lot of step-by-step directions, logic and mathematical thinking. If the teachers are willing and able then its part of the classrooms but I think it’s a lot easier in Junior and Senior High classrooms.”

She continues, “the teachers are teaching coding as a course, like how we would have taken typing once upon a time”.

Robotics challenges vary based on age and skill set. Grade one students are asked to build a boat that will float, grade twos make cars that will work on a ramp, grade threes must program a robot using basic coding and grade 4-12 students have their robots follow the same tasks, but they vary in complexity based on grade.

Some tasks include line-following and races for speed or weight carrying. New challenges are added every year like this year’s robot mazes and tasks which have robots identify colours of lines and say the colours that they see.

“(There are) two different mazes where they’re allowed to hit the walls, so then if you have a bump sensor, you can have the robot bounce off the walls to get through the maze and then we have one where the challenge is to actually get through the maze without touching the walls of the maze,” says Daniel.

The new format of events this year allows for students to solve problems on the fly and use building and programming skills to attempt new tasks.

A student favourite is the final event, a Sumo Tournament, which sees robots go head to head in an arena and try to push each other out in a three-minute faceoff.

Light sensors are programmed by students to detect the edge of the track, in order to keep their robots inside the arena. Touch sensors are used to detect other objects or robots at certain distances and the information data sensors receive determines how motors, speakers, and displays function.

Students learn through the continual analyzation of their own and competitor robots. They work to tweak their designs and code on-site to make their bots faster, stronger, more efficient, and ‘smarter’ than their competitors’.

Photo/Jennifer Daniel

Winners of the events are determined through a point system. Points are awarded to students for attempting challenges and additional points are given out for robots being faster or completing tasks in a certain timeframe. The Sumo Tournament winner is determined by the last robot standing in the arena.

Most students build their bots during class time, but many go above and beyond to hone their skills outside of the classroom, too.

Daniel notes how one Junior High student at last year’s tournament blew the crowd away with his capabilities. “He had managed to program his robot so that the bump sensors became like a remote control. His little robot could respond to his remote control. He built not only the robot but the remote control so that he could make it do things.”

The 2019 Robotics tournament is sponsored by PRSD Technology Services and ATA Greater Peace Local 13 Teachers who are providing equipment, technological support and event prizing.

The event begins at 10 a.m. and wraps at 2:30 p.m. The Sumo Tournament is set for a 1 p.m. start time.