State champion HHS Robotics team competes on a global level

Buddy Baker moved his family to Howe 50 years ago conditioning business The business is still going

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Back in April, the Howe High School Robotics program won the state championship at the convention held in Houston Robotics teacher Sam Wingate deemed the program a "rookie program" but that didn't slow down the team from the tiny town on the grand stage Now they have

Howe's new Offensive Line Coach Billy McCormack has page 5

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The Howe students had some mechanical issues in California and did not advance to the semifinals, but the team competed well on Thursday and Friday According to Wingate, the experience the team received from the competition was extremely valuable for each student

"They learned about very advanced robotics and networking with teams from Austria, Qatar, China and especially Poland," said Wingate

The U S was also represented by many states with schools that made the trip to California

Student Gage Hendrickson could probably take home the trip MVP honors as he raised thousands of dollars in the community and around Texomaland that made the trip possible

"We want to make sure and give special thanks to all of those that contributed and allowed our kids to even be able to experience this," said Wingate

The robotic competition was in the form of Botball® which is a trademarked Educational Robotics Program designed to engage middle and high school aged students in a team-oriented robotics competition and serves as a perfect way to meet today’s new common core standards, according to the botball org The students use autonomous robots which use artificial intelligence with embedded systems Students learn to program the robots by using C, C++, and Java There is no driver of these robots as their actions are based on information from the sensors, combined with the computer program written by the students in advance The robots rely on this computer programming to start, stop, and maneuver on the game board Each robot uses sensors to detect changes in light, distance, color, and parameters

The Global Conference on Educational Robotics (GCER), produced by KISS Institute for Practical Robotics, is a professional conference designed for elementary, middle and high school students, their teachers and mentors, technology education professionals, robot enthusiasts, and invited professional guests

The GCER gives attendees the inspiration and experience of a professional conference, encouraging students to further their knowledge, network with other students from around the world and pursue related careers Teachers and mentors have many opportunities to network, exchange best practices and develop new approaches to STEM education

Experiences like the ones these kids just had will last a lifetime