School board celebrates robotics teams’ 2023-2024 accomplishments

Robotics team members received recognition for their 2023-2024 achievements.

Updated with additional details from the Edmonds School District.

The Edmonds Schools Board at its Oct. 22 meeting celebrated the accomplishments of Mountlake Terrace High’s Chill Out Robotics and Lynnwood High’s Royal Robotics from the 2023-2024 season, during which both teams successfully qualified for, and competed at the FIRST World Championship in Houston, TX.  Combined, these FIRST Robotics Competition, or FRC, teams are composed of students from high schools districtwide.  While the teams do compete separately, they have continually worked together with some of their outreach projects, as well as teamed together during competitions.

FRC Team 1778 Chill Out Mentor, Steve Winckler, presented their accomplishments over the 2023-2024 school year, including their scouting team’s launch of a custom phone app called Chilly Scout. The app includes new team member data collection tools that hold data with or without an internet connection.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, Royal Robotics student member, Caroline Zurybida, also spoke to acknowledge the district’s support in regards to access to former Alderwood Middle School, the current temporary location of Oak Heights Elementary, where both co-host a practice field for FRC.  This field is used by the majority of the high ranking teams in the area.

Winckler additionally stated how both teams were one game piece away from winning the PNW district championship in March 2024, as Royal Robotics and Chill Out worked together in an alliance.  Even though the teams ended up losing the final match, Wincklet states, “you can’t measure the success in wins and losses,” and the event was definitely a success in the eyes of both teams.

Chill Out chose not to compete in the 2022-2023 world championships because they felt unprepared and “came back with a chip on their shoulder,” as Winckler put it, which drove their success during the 2023-24 school year, as both teams qualified for the world championships at the PNW district championship.

As Brain Blomquist, Royal Robotics Mentor, discussed, between finding out the details of the competition in January, and the first competition in March, each team only had six weeks to design, build and program a functional robot to complete the various tasks that year’s season had to offer. Both teams worked incredibly hard, and created some of their best robots yet. Going into the world championship, both teams were in the top 150 teams in the world, out of a total of about 3,340 worldwide teams.

In addition to the manufacturing of a robot, both teams expanded their skill set in a variety of different ways. The Chill Out leadership team held a class called Judges 101 to help students comfortably and confidently give presentations, which helped the team to win two judged awards in competition. The team has also planned out a Women in STEM panel, which they will be hosting at Mountlake Terrace High School on Nov. 10.  From August to November 2024, which registered under off-season for the 2023-2024 season, Royal Robotics has expanded outreach to multiple district schools with FIRST LEGO League (FLL) to teach STEAM concepts and life skills to 4th through 8th graders. Expecting to run 3 teams during their expansion from one to three schools for this season, the team got an incredible amount of enthusiasm, and ended up receiving nearly 60 kids divided among six teams across the schools. Both teams additionally work on in-team aspects such as graphic design, grant writing/sponsor relations, communications, strategy, and countless others.

Chill Out hosted a new student training on the day of the school board, and two of their members were able to attend, Maria Gaviola and Raien Elliston, in addition to mentor Steve Winckler.  Royal Robotics student attendees include Nora Cook, Evan Cole, Seth Lambing, Anna Lorenzo-Grueneich, Allyson Roseburg and Caroline Zurybida, as well as mentors Brian Blomquist, Sharon Blomquist, Shane Lambing, Cynthia Nelson, Dave Phippen, Jonathan Phippen, and Gina Grueneich.  All students were recognized with certificates, and those present took a photograph with the board of directors.

To see the robotics presentation material for Chill Out, click here.

Chase Lake Elementary School student Alex tells the school board directors about his experience as a reading buddy.

In other business, Chase Lake Elementary School students presented to the board how they are building a “culture of literacy,” with older students helping younger students with reading and writing.

Among the speakers was sixth-grader Alex, who explained that his kindergarten reading partner wasn’t the only one to benefit from the pairing. Alex said he learned and practiced patience by realizing his partner was still learning. He said that he remembered when he was learning new words, which helped him relate to his reading buddy.

Chase Lake Elementary School Principal Sean Silver explains how their literacy goals help bilingual students.

Chase Lake Elementary School Principal Sean Silver said the school has a long multilingual history, with over 22 native languages spoken. This year’s school improvement goal is to increase the academic performance of multilingual students, and the reading buddy program is a part of that.

Silver said that the student body is now 35% Latino and that teachers have learned Spanish keywords and phrases to help students with their English literacy.

To see the student presentation material, click here.

To see the school improvement presentation materials, click here.

During new business, the school board discussed the grading practices resolution, which would help level the playing field for students who have complications outside of school that prevent them from succeeding.

“Part of it is our grading practices; they are mathematically unfair,” School Board Director Hawk Cramer said.

The board and the student advisors discussed inconsistent grading methods between teachers, some so severe that missing one assignment means the student fails the class. During the discussion, board members agreed that a zero score from a missing assignment does not accurately reflect the student’s knowledge of the subject or their retention of information.

To see the draft resolution, click here.

The school board will hold a special study session on Oct. 29 to discuss school improvement plan templates.

The next regular meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 12, at the Educational Services Center, 20420 68th Ave. W., Lynnwood, WA 98036.

You can watch the meeting online by clicking here.

To view the meeting agenda, click here.

— By Rick Sinnett

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