Student Teams Advance to World Finals

Westchester’s STEAM extracurricular programs are at it again. The school celebrated student teams advancing to the World Finals in both VEX Robotics and Odyssey of the Mind in 2024.

VEX Robotics is a competitive robotics program in which students design, build and program a robot to complete a series of challenges. Students in Lower, Middle and Upper School have opportunities to participate.

Rubik Racer team members Emma Reese Ballance, Johanna English and Anna Kate Albert, Class of 2031, practice driving their robot on a field set up in one of the technology labs in Phillips Hall.

A fifth-grade team represented WCDS at the World Championship in Dallas, Texas. The all-girl team named Rubik Racers, made up of Anna Kate Albert, Emma Reese Ballance, and Johanna English, Class of 2031, and their robot, Ruby, placed 22nd out of 82 teams in their division. They received an invitation to the world competition after ranking first in the state and winning at both regional and North Carolina VEX IQ state competitions.

After working for hours throughout the school year designing, building, programming, testing and improving their robot to perform a series of tasks, they experienced the energy of the huge event, where 420 elementary teams from around the world gathered. The WCDS team met many teams from other countries and nations.

WCDS team members represented the state of North Carolina at the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals.

Odyssey of the Mind is a creative problem-solving competition in which a team of up to seven students works together to solve a hands-on problem ranging from building a vehicle, to developing an AI device, to interpreting a classic work of literature into a modern adaptation. All of the solutions include a performance with original characters, script, costumes and sometimes songs. Opportunities are available for students K-12.

WCDS sent two Upper School teams to Iowa for the 2024 World Finals after both teams won first place in their problems at the regional and state competitions.

One of the teams, with members Cooper Singer ’25 and 2024 graduates Liv Mueller, Mallory Atkinson, Maggie O’Keeffe and Ava Klein placed 8th worldwide in the classics problem, “Opening Night Antics.” The second team, with Luke Heybrock and James Collins, Class of 2028, and Talia Taylor, Skylar Townsend, Clinton Wagoner, Pallavi Paruchuri and Wilson Caddy, Class of 2027, placed 11th worldwide for their problem, AI-Tech-No-Art. They were among teams from the United States, China, Hong Kong, Poland, Germany, Korea and more.