Local robotics team promotes STEM with pumpkin drop – WTAP-TV

PARKERSBURG, W. Va. Dark Side Robotics, Wood County's first robotic competition team, hosted a pumpkin drop with an educational twist focusing on STEM.

Students from several schools around Wood County gathered at WVUP for the staple fall event, although this is the first year the robotics team held its own.

The goal of the competition is to design an enclosure to protect a pumpkin from damage when dropped form several hundred feet in the air. The students were hoisted in the air with the assistance of a Vienna fire truck ladder to see if their pumpkin both survives the fall and lands closes to a target.

Though the event was a fun-filled, organizers say it's a way for the kids to experience STEM education, which is simply problem solving.

"The important end result of participating in STEM is the idea of giving them a valid problem to solve and then respecting their ability to research and think critically and come up with a solution and execute", said Amy Stewart, advisor of Dark Side Robotics.

Dark Side Robotics competition team are comprised of middle and high school students around the area. They are only one of four operating teams in the state of West Virginia.

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Local robotics team promotes STEM with pumpkin drop - WTAP-TV