Eli Kormanik
Ethan Lif, Caleb Schroeder
Eli Kormanik, Treyman Edwards
Ethan Lif, Finn Gant
Treyman Edwards, Matthew Lawrence
Ethan Lif
3rd Place Marketing
Finn Gant, Matthew Lawrence, Ethan Lif, Calla Unruh, Ella Kirk
2nd Place Exhibit
Trinadee Fetters, Calla Unruh, Elle Dragone, Ella Kirk
11th Place Overall
Photos by Myles Gant, Ella Kirk, and Mrs. Schroeder; Editing by Myles Gant and Hayden German
As they gear up for Game Day on Saturday, the Braves Robotics team took their robot to Practice Day on the WSU campus to solve any last minute problems.
Eli Kormanik
Brycen Palmquist
Ethan Lif
Matthew Lawrence
Photos by Ella Kirk; Editing by Felicity Smith and Jayden Moseley-Cannon
Kickoff Day was at WSU on September 25
Matthew Lawrence, Caleb Schroeder
Eli Kormanik, Calla Unruh
Mrs. Schroeder
Evie White
Ethan Lif
Photos by Myles Gant; Editing by Felicity Smith
Laynee Bremer, Jayden Patry, Wyatt LeMay
Jesee Robidou, Daniel McLaren
Ella Kirk
Asia Imholt
Junior Royalty Kierni Mullen and Anthony Monihen
Kiele Tyner, Abby Allen
Kiele Tyner, Abby Allen, Camryn Frazier
Macy Bolen
Landon Dody, Johnathan Breese, Brycen Palmquist, Mark Andres
Keana Hearn, Jesee Robidou, Daniel McLaren
Lauren Brown, Rylee Spittles, Evie White
Junior High Volleyball Float
Sophomore Royalty Jude Kormanik, Cienna Good
Brooklyn Cooper
Sophomore Float Fear the Spear
Junior Royalty Kierni Mullen and Anthony Monihen
Jessica Filkin
Junior Float Poison the Panthers
Mason Goeckel, Jesse Lowmaster
Volleyball Float
Jenna Blosser, Jesse Rodgers, Aspen Pearson, Mija Carlson, Eden Crabb, Nash Cooper
Senior Float Kiss the Panthers Good-bye
Senior Float Kiss the Panthers Good-bye
Paislee Yadon, Atticus Tanner, Daphne Troxell, Brooklyn Ross
Seth Unruh
Senior Royalty Liz Mascote, Myles Gant
Senior Royalty Liz Armstrong, Koen Hula
Senior Royalty Hunter Brintle, Karly Goodell
Brooklyn Ross, Paislee Yadon, Atticus Tanner
Seth Unruh, Daphne Troxell
Cassidy Dalquest, Keana Hearn
Shanyn Miller
Caleb Schroeder, Ethan Lif, Matthew Lawrence, Treyman Edwards
Photos by Chase German and MHouse
Tucked away in an upstairs corner, the Robotics team doesn’t usually get a lot of attention, but even with all of the challenges this year offers, they have been hard at work. We sat down with Mrs. Schroder to find out more as their season comes to an end. She explained that “usually we go to Kick-Off day and we get our challenge, and we come back and work for five weeks and get our notebook done and then go to Practice Day. Then we have another week to get ready for Game Day.” However, all of those in-person events couldn’t happen this year. So the team got to work, even though they knew the end result wouldn’t be nearly as rewarding. Mrs. Schroder said “Without Game Day, it’s hard to get motivated. That event is so amazing. Still, even though motivation has been hard, we have done a lot."
The team, led by Gabe Reichart, are conducting time trials for the robot during Practice Day
The first thing to complete was the robot. Mrs. Schroeder explained, “We aren’t actually building it. We’re still designing it. We still have all the rules and how you score and everything, we just didn’t build anything.” Even though this wasn’t exactly what the team wanted, they got to work. “Eli and Elle were our builders and designed the robot and did the brainstorming on it and worked out how it should work, in theory. But we don’t know how it works. We can’t put our robot on the game field and see how it would work.” All of the robot building was done online through a special set of programs. “It was a little anticlimactic,” she added. Since the designing of the robot was different, the driving had to be too. It was broken into two parts, according to Mrs. Schroder. “We have our game field, and we have all of our cells that we’re picking up. In the autonomous part, you just hit go and the robot goes and picks up the pieces and puts them in the correct place. Then there is the team robot which we program, and we’re actually using a playstation controller.” She went on to explain that they still get to drive it, just on a virtual platform instead of real life.
Elle Dragone and Eli Kormanic show what the robot can do and explain some of the design challenges they encountered during the modeling interview
However, the actual robot isn’t the only part of Robotics. They also design a booth and prepare a notebook. “Calla is our main booth person, but this year, we’re building a website instead. So it’s all the same things, just not nearly as cool.” In a normal year, the booths are judged at random, but this year they have a specific time they meet on Zoom to be judged. The notebook is one of the only things that remained the same. It is just submitted online. Mrs. Schroder explained that, “It was kind of anti-climactic. Usually, we print it off, and we have these 60 pages of stuff, but now it’s just a file.”
Gabe Reichart, Ethan Lif
Matthew Lawrence, Landon Dody
Final Competition Time Trials
Calla Unruh works on the Robotics web page
Part of the Council Grove team also participated in the new Minecraft challenge this year. "It has been so much fun," Mrs. Schroeder said. "In Minecraft we have a team space in a Mod, called Polycraft, and it’s from UT Dallas. There are oil wells and different ores, and it’s specifically for their engineering department. So we spawn in this space, and we had to build a clinic because the villagers are infected with Covid. Then the villagers started coming in, and we had to make test kits." There are two phases of the Minecraft Challenge ending December 4.
Ethan Liff, Treyman Edwards, Matthew Lawrence, Landon Dody, Mrs. Schroeder, and Caleb Schroeder working on the Minecraft Challenge
There were some benefits of all the changes, and some of them might last. “A lot of this is going to stay in place because that’s actually what engineers do. They don’t build the robot and then test it. They test it in a virtual environment and then build it.” A crazy year might benefit the program and make it more practical. In summary, Mrs. Schroeder described the year, “It’s been interesting. It’s been kind of a weird year.” But that’s not always a bad thing, and the Robotics Team has done their best to make the most of it. They now await the results of their competition.
Story by Carissa Dalquest; Photos by Mrs. Schroeder and MHouse; Editing by Ashley Irwin
LARR-E
Calla Unruh talks about the robot in the publicity booth. The publicity team took home 3rd place.
The Build Team talks it over: Eli Kormanik, Lance Crabb, Elle Dragone, and Tyler Rodgers
Gabe Reichart and Eli Kormanik
Gabe Reichart, Kyra Blosser
Gabe Reichart, Elle Dragone
Abby Allen
Elle Dragone
Kyra Blosser
Owen Vars, Tyler Rodgers
The Marketing Team with 2nd Place
Gabe Reichart, Eli Kormanik, Sierra Meade, Calla Unruh, Abby Allen
Colton Skaggs, Levi Orebaugh, Calla Unruh, Lance Crabb, Makayla Zirkel, Owen Vars, Tyler Rodgers, Gabe Reichart, Eli Kormanik, Ella Kirk, Sierra Meade
Abby Allen, Kyra Blosser, Elle Dragone, Myles Gant
Photos by Mrs. Schroeder, Calla Unruh, Brenda Kirk, and Myles Gant; Editing by Calla Unruh
Robotics went to Wichita on Saturday to run their robot through some practice rounds so they could see what needs to be improved before game day at Koch Arena on Saturday, October 26. "The wheels work. The steamroller wheel seems like it shouldn't work, but it does. The arm extends well, but the claw needs some improvements," Sierra Meade said.
The marketing team will be doing a presentation in Wichita on Thursday as well.
LARR-E
(Logistically Autonomous Robotic Repair Entity)
Elle Dragone, Gabe Reichart
Myles Gant
Eli Kormanik, Gabe Reichart
Abby Allen, Levi Orebaugh, Colton Skaggs
Eli Kormanik, Gabe Reichart
Gabe Reichart, Elle Dragone
Kyra Smith-Blosser
Photos by Dustin Lindley and Myles Gant; Editing by Rylee Powell and Calla Unruh
Jessica Filkin and Liz Mascote are two of fourteen Braves Robotics members excited about the 2019 Challenge
This year Kansas BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology) robotics competition will consist of building a robot to fix power lines after a natural disaster, doing many things that an electrical lineman does, such as lay new lines, put in new residential transformers, and fix power lines. There also needs to be an autonomous function in the robot for item delivery. Devin Adams said, "Making the robot multifunctional will be the most challenging aspect of the build for the team. It has to do a lot of tasks."
Photos by Myles Gant and Devin Adams