0113 sphs robot
Spain Park junior Andrew Forsyth, left, pilots the team’s model on a test run.
Through Spain Park’s robotics program, comprised of 122 Engineering Academy students, participants compete in the BEST (Boosting Engineering Science and Technology) robotics program, a six week long competition in which they have to design and build a robot from a given set of materials. It’s a time-intensive commitment, requiring students to meet after school three to four days each week.
During the competition, held recently at Auburn University, competition was fierce amongst the top 56 schools from 18 different BEST hubs from the Eastern portion of the United States.
Spain Park’s BEST robotics team came home with the following awards:
• First Place, Most Elegant Robot
• Third Place, Most Robust Robot
• First Place, Formal Marketing Presentation
• Third Place, Team Exhibit and Interview
• Third Place, Robotics
The goal of the Engineering Program is to expose students to the field of engineering as well as to introduce them to some of the material they will be exposed to in a four-year undergraduate engineering curriculum.