A new team from Omaha Public Schools, Bluestem Middle School, is set to compete in the VEX Robotics World Championships for the first time in nearly a decade. The school, which opened this year, has six dedicated students representing them in the competition. These students are 6th and 7th graders as the school has not yet enrolled 8th graders.
The VEX challenge this year requires teams to build and program a robot that can score points by getting “tri-balls” into the opposite goal. The robotics coach, Sheri Cohen Vollmer, emphasizes that she is there to guide the students through the process but also stresses that they must build and program their own robot using nuts, bolts, and metal.
One of the team members, Dylan Serrano Acosta, expressed his initial excitement for joining the robotics team but was disappointed when their first robot did not meet size specifications and had to be disassembled. Despite these setbacks, the team persevered and learned from their mistakes eventually finding success in the competition.
Cohen Vollmer describes robotics as “the sport of failing forward,” emphasizing the importance of learning from failures and moving forward. She encourages her students to focus on having fun and learning from each match rather than solely winning or losing. By participating in robotics, these students are developing technical skills as well as important life skills that will serve them well in the future.
