N.E.R.D.S. Robotic Team
N.E.R.D.S
On Saturday November 11, 2017, the “N.E.R.D.S” robotics team competed in its first meet of the season, managing to come in second out of 10 teams. On Saturday December 16, 2017, the team competed in its second meet of the season, also finishing second out of 12 teams.
“While we wish we could have finished first, we can take great pride in these results,” according to Gerald Nelson, the Mentor/Coach of the team. “The teams that beat us are from large Kansas City area schools, Blue Valley CAPS and Lees Summit West High School. If this sport was basketball, it would be like a Class 1 team taking on Class 5 teams. Our team is competing on a par with the top teams in the state.”
First Tech Challenge meets consist of matches involving four robots, two vs. two, performing a set of tasks to earn more points than their competition. The set of tasks is different each year, requiring the design and building of a completely new robot starting in September. Meets begin in October, and teams that do well enough to advance compete in regional Qualifier meets in January and February, leading up to the state competition at Jefferson City in late February.
The team’s current standing in the Northwest FTC Conference is in third place out of 52 teams. This conference encompasses a fourth of the state, including all of the Kansas City area as well as northwest Missouri.
The N.E.R.D.S, standing for “Novice Engineers Robot Design Society,” is sponsored by the Northwest Missouri Educational Robotics Foundation of Conception, Missouri. This year’s team consists of two students from Northeast Nodaway and 5 students from South West Nodaway, most of whom are 8th graders. They are learning the mysteries of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) through the exciting process of designing and building robots to compete with other teams in the international First Tech Challenge Program.
The 2017-18 Season Robot.
The photo shows the crew that participated November 11:
Foreground left: Kyle Karr, 8th grade, South Nodaway; center, our newbie selfie taker, Nathan Meyer, 8th Grade, Northeast Nodaway.
Background from left: Nicco LaBryer, 8th Grade, South Nodaway; Connor LaBryer, 10th Grade, South Nodaway, Gerald Nelson, 69th Grade, semi-retired engineer; Kevin Henggeler, 8th Grade, South Nodaway.
Not pictured: Samuel Nothstine, 11th Grade, South Nodaway; Colton Swalley, 8th Grade, Northeast Nodaway.
The group that participated on December 16th were: Colton Swalley, robot driver; Kyle Karr, driver coach; Kevin Henggler, robot maintenance; Nathan Meyer, media and scouting; Gerald Nelson, chief worrier.
Team standings as of December 19, 2017.
