WBMS robotics club goes buggy

The University of West Florida hosted its fifth annual Emerald Coast BEST Robotics hub on Oct. 29, and the students of Woodlawn Beach Middle School’s robotics club were there with their latest creation.

Shannon Farrell, who teaches eighth-grade science at WBMS, has volunteered her time for the last six years with the robotics club.

“The program is multi-faceted,” said Farrell. “The students not only build a robot to accomplish a specific task in 42 days, they also compose a project engineering notebook, develop a project display booth, design t-shirts using adobe Photoshop, and create a marketing presentation 'pitched' to the judges on game day.”

The club received a box of supplies from Best Robotics, a non‐profit, volunteer‐based which relies on corporate and personal sponsorships to pay for the competition. There is no cost for schools and students who participate.

Using only the materials in the supply kit, students have to build a robot to complete the task assigned to them.

This year the students created a robot to catch bugs; the team from WBMS created a robot to catch flies. The flies were simulated by Styrofoam balls hung roughly three-and-a-half feet off the floor.

For more on this story, see the Nov. 10 issue of the Navarre Press.