McGuffey robotics team breezes through state contest | News, Sports, Jobs

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The McGuffey PK-8 robotics team, known as the Titonics, advanced to the FIRST Lego League state finals for the second year in a row and now has qualified for national competition. Here, team members, from left, Jayden Colbert, O’Brian Goliday and William Sanders work on their robot.

WARREN — The McGuffey PK-8 Titonics robotics team advanced to the FIRST Lego League state finals for the second year in a row and now have the opportunity to compete at the world competition in June.

The team won the Core Values and the Global Innovation awards during the state championships, which were held virtually March 6, making it the nominee from the Ohio region to go to the world championship. The team is required to submit a written proposal for its project. If selected as a finalist, the team will travel to St. Louis to present it in person, according to coach Amanda Colbert.

The team consists of 10 students from grades 4 through 8 who compete in the four areas of Project, Core Values, Robot Design and Robot Table Runs. This year’s team was made up of almost all new students, with only two returning teammates — Jayden Colbert, an eighth-grader who has been competing since the third grade, and Donovan Stringer, who is in his third year of competition.

The new members are O’Brian Goliday, William Sanders, Amariyae Martin, Norah Foster, Ethan Wade, Daniel Stella Jr., Daniel Haggerty and Cameron Colbert.

Cameron Colbert, who is in the fourth grade, has been attending competitions and watching his older brother, Jayden, compete for the past six years. Amanda Colbert said he was known as the team’s mascot and is happy to be competing himself this year.

Students learn to build and program a Lego SPIKE robot to run autonomously to complete as many missions as possible in 2 minutes and 30 seconds. They also have to solve a real-world problem by coming up with a solution in a given topic.

This year’s theme was cargo, and the project is an app that allows passengers to see their pets in the cargo hold of the plane. The team worked with an app designer from Apple’s Design Academy as well as employees from United Airlines and Pet Safe program to build an actual app prototype.

Several Core Values also must be showcased while doing all of the above. The Titonics advanced out of the Austintown Regionals to the NE Ohio District in Lorain and then advanced to the state championship, which was held virtually March 6.

At the state championship, the team submitted three robot runs as well as the team project, core values presentation and robot design and coding.

“What sets this team apart from the other robotic teams is that these students are involved in so many other activities,” Amanda Colbert said. “The majority are student athletes who compete in football, baseball, basketball, softball, soccer, cheerleading and gymnastics. The team includes Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Prep Bowl members, National Junior Honor Society, Student Council members and also three members who have been selected to attend the National Youth Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C.”

Last year, Colbert received the Coach of the Year award for Ohio.