Westminster Christian School (WCS) hosted 23 elementary teams from eight local public and private schools on Saturday, Oct. 13, for the VEX IQ Robotics Competition.
Teams, including three from WCS Elementary, competed in numerous robotic challenges and submitted for judging their engineering journals detailing robot design.
WCS Team 6855C, led by WCS teacher Mailyn Santiesteban, finished in third place and earned the STEM Research Project Award. This award is presented to the team that develops and delivers an effective research project presentation and demonstrates a significant understanding of this year’s theme, Mathematics. WCS students on this team were: Joey Hernandez-Solaun, Amarri Irvin, Santiago Ganley, Anthony Gonzalez, Jonah Santiesteban, Russell Briggs, RJ Linares, Daniel Fernandez and Andrew Godoy.
WCS Team 6855B received the Design Award, which earned the team a bid to the VEX IQ State Competition in March 2019. This award is to the team whose Engineering Notebook provides clear and complete documentation of the group’s robot design process. Coached by WCS teacher Claudia Pastrana, the team includes WCS students: Gaby Gonzalez, Gabi Martin, Reva Eikenberg, Kaitlyn Walker, Ilysa Hilliard, Zoe DeVarona, Sara Espitia, Gigi Artiles, Lorena Haedo, and Caroline Seagren.
Across town, the Westminster Christian Middle School Robotics teams competed in a VEX EDR Robotics competition at Ransom Everglades Upper School. The four MS Warrior Robotics teams were among only seven middle school teams competing with the 50 high school teams. MS Warrior Robotics had two teams place in the top half of the competition and one team make it to the elimination bracket. Team members included: Julia Almirall, Francisco Arango, Emilio Banuelos, Andres Cardenal, Tosh Curtin, Jacob Dumas, Ashley Gomez, Trinity Kinsey, Emily Nasr, Ruben Orellana, Oliver Ruiz, Christian Sanchez, and Cole Woodward.
“It was a very strong showing for the Middle School Robotics teams in their very first competition,” said Michael Gambrell, WCS director of Engineering and MS Club sponsor.
Westminster Christian School in Palmetto Bay has made a considerable investment in facilities and curriculum to support the school’s focus and the students’ interest in science, technology, art, and engineering. In 2017, the TIDE Center was built to provide classroom space for courses specifically focused on technology, innovation, design, and engineering. As a school that educates from preschool through 12th grade, WCS is uniquely positioned to respond to the academic needs of students as they grow and interact with STEM-focused curriculum.
