ATHABASCA — The day the robots took over the school will be embedded in Aspen View Public Schools (AVPS) students' minds after the inaugural Robotics Challenge took place May 11 at Thorhild Central School.
Initially planned to be a virtual event, the school division was able to come together with teams from all grades and every school for a day of building, programming, and competing with robots.
“It sounded kind of fun, so I joined,” said eight-year-old Rochester School student Sadie Jensen.
Her friend Izzy Pytel said they had some trouble guiding their robot along the Pot of Gold maze though.
“When we were close to the end something went wrong and we tried to fix it,” said Pytel.
Caleb Jensen was also representing Team Rochester Oreos when he won the Division III Sumo Challenge with teammates Logan Oko and Moira Siemens.
“I am really good at coding, and I enjoy it a lot,” he said, adding he works on computers at home too.
Parker Deitsch and Darion Chalifioux, students at Edwin Parr Composite School in Athabasca, both feel at home with robotics too.
“I chose to be on the robotics (team) because I'm pretty good with technology,” said Deitsch. “And I felt like it was a good way to use my skills to my advantage.”
Chalifioux concurred, “Before all this robotics thing started to happen, I was actually building like this on my own so, I just thought of it as an opportunity to grow bigger.”
