MOUNTAIN CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) – Over 100 students from East Tennessee middle and high schools competed in a regional VEX robotics tournament at Johnson County Middle School Saturday.
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The road to Nashville continued Saturday with 28 teams competing for 6 spots in the State Championship.
“The coding requires a lot of logic. The engineering of the robots is a lot of problem solving. It teaches them really good, real world skills. The other thing I really like about the VEX Tournaments is it’s not just what you see out here when they’re robots are working because there’s a whole judging side,” said Peter Buchanan, REC Foundation Event Support Specialist.
Students are not only judged on how their robots perform in the timed competition but are graded on an interview and a design notebook.
There have been several weeks for the students to revise their design and programming.
This is Johnson County Middle School’s third tournament this year.
“Once you enter the state level, you’re qualifying there to enter the world competition which is in Kentucky this year. It’s really a fantastic way to get kids interested in engineering, programming, building, thinking, working with their teammates,” said Susan Quave, Johnson County’s Robotics Team Coach.
The Mountain City tournament has rightfully earned the reputation as a tough competition with teams from Nashville and Kentucky competing.
Six teams earned a trip to Nashville by using their creativity to design, build and program their robot to be the best in the timed contest.
