On day 10, I ran the promised competition between the students. The students were divided into 4 teams: 1) Team Apex: Angel and Jimena., 2) Team Mav: Jack and Marcela, 3) Team Pwr: Antonio and Samuel, 4) Team Alpha: Max and Juan.
Many students arrived early to practice before the competition. And pretty soon it was time for business, I explained the rules and prizes:
The winner of each competition/game received 4 pts, the second placed team, 3 points, the third placed team 2 points, and the 4th placed team 1 pt. The points are added up at the end to obtain the final classification. The winning team receives 2 x 400 peso certificates (about $25 each), The second placed ream receives 2x 300 peso certificates, the 3rd placed team receives 2x 200 peso certificates, and the 4th placed team receives 2x 100 peso certificates.
This was the list of competitions:
- (TL) Tracking the line:
- Using the line tracking mode, achieve the fastest lap on the black tape circle.
- (CD) Coded directions without gyroscope corrections:
- Car will start next to teacher’s desk, go around two water bottles, and come back to the starting line.
- (OA) Obstacle avoidance:
- The car will travel forward but must now go around two box it will detect instead of just going left or right.
- (FB) Follow the boxes:
- Use the follow car mode to get close to four boxes arranged in the corners of a square. The car will have to get close to a box but now must look for other boxes to follow after getting too close to a box.
- (PR) Partner race:
- With the app that is used to control the robot, we will have a race where the drivers can only see the course through the camera on the car.
- (KT) Kahoot:
- A team Kahoots based on our first week of class.
- (BF) Balloon fight:
- Balloons will be attached to the back of your car and a sharp object will be attached in front. Pop other balloons while keeping yours intact.
Competition 1: this was a classic track the line competition. The Alpha team (team 4) took the lead with the Apex team (team 1) close behind. The PWR team came in 3rd. Team 4 increased the speed of the car by modifying the code. Playing around with the turn directives proved counter-productive and difficult to adapt; the teams would have needed a little more time for that.
In competition 2, each team had to code the movement of the car to go across the class, around 2 bottles, and back. Team 1 Apex won this competition, followed by teams 3 PWR getting their first 2nd placement equalled by Team 4 Alpha, then followed by Team 2 Mav.
In competition 3, the objective was to go around 2 boxes and continue beyond. Team 4 Alpha won this competition maintaining its lead. Team 2 Mav, took its first 2nd place edging out Team 1 Apex, with Team 3 PWR bringing up the rear.
In competition 4, the objective was for the car to successively close in on boxes placed on the edges of a square as shown in video below. Team 4 Alpha won extending its lead, followed by teams 2 Mav, 1 Apex, and 3 Pwr.
Competition 5 was a simple race. Team 1 Apex made up some ground on Team 4 Alpha by winning this competition. Team 3 PWR was leading the race before fading onto third.
In Competition 6, Team 1 Alpha won the kahoots English competitions and got even closer to the number 1 position.
Entering competition 7, Team 1 Apex had 19 points vs. 21 points for Team 4 Alpha. Team 1 needed to win and hope Team 4 did not finish second to win or tie the competition. However, Team 1 ended up being the first team to be eliminated and placed 4th.
Competition 7 was a Balloon fight with balloons tied to the back of the cars, and small bbq skewers taped to the front of the car. The objective was to pop the balloons at the back of other Teams’ cars. Each team had 3 lives. Here is some footage of what ended up being everyone’s favorite competition:
Final standings:
| Game 1 (TL) | Game 2 (CD) | Game 3 (OA) | Game 4 (FB) | Game 5 (PR) | Game 6 (KT) | Game 7 (BF) | Total: | |
| Team 1: Apex | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 20 |
| Team 2: Mav | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 15 |
| Team 3: PWR | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 12 |
| Team 4: Alpha | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 24 |
Prize distribution:
Finally, I donated the equipment in use to the Robotics club at Prepa 20.
Next: acknowledgements.
ralphgholmieh.com 