The MCS Robotics team took third place (out of 23 teams) in the Jackrabbits BEST Robotics Competition on Oct. 31 in Brookings. This is the fourth year that MCS has participated in the BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science & Technology) Program.
The third-place win has earned the team a place at the Regional Competition in Fargo, N.D., on Dec. 3-5. There, they will compete against Robotics teams from North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The MCS team also earned the fifth place BEST Award. This award includes scores from five different areas. Members of the team were judged on their marketing presentation, engineering notebook, exhibit booth, spirit and sportsmanship and robot performance.
The 2015 BEST Robotics Competition began six weeks ago with a reveal of the new playing field. There is a mining theme this year, and the students had to build a remotely controlled robot that would perform several mining-related tasks out of the supplies provided. They then competed in three minute rounds. After the seeding rounds, MCS was in fourth place. The team was also fourth after the semi-final rounds. They moved ahead in the final rounds to finish in third place.
The 2015 Robotics team includes 16 students in grades seven through 12 and is coached by Todd Tegethoff and Kim Karhoff.
ADVERTISEMENT
