Portland West robotics club scores in world competition – The Portland Sun

Portland East Middle Schools Panther Tech robotics club sent three teams to the VEX Robotics World Competition recently. The club is under the leadership of PEMS Guidance Counselor Dale Sadler, who began the club two years ago.

The club began with two teams and during the 2020-2021 school year, it grew to nine.

PEMS had the first VEX IQ club which is for grades 5 through 8. Sadlers influence spread across Sumner County with all middle schools now having a team with the exception of a specialized school. White House High School had the first VEX VRC team which are large metal robots designed for high school students.

The teams build robots from VEXIQ kits designed for grades 5-8. The kits contain plastic interlock pieces similar to Legos. Teams design the body structure and program the hard drive which becomes the brain of the robot.

The robot is controlled by a remote similar to a video game controller. The kits are very complex and cost over $300 each.

This year the teams competed in a county event hosted by Portland East Middle School and a competition at Valor Academy in Nashville. The teams then advanced to the state competition held at Brentwood Academy. Two PEMS teams earned the right to go to the VEX Robotics World

Competition.

A Team with Noah Scearce and Braden Buckner won first place and B Team with Colton Wink and Ethan Klotz placed second.

Team Z Dalton Simmons and Brody Dillard finished fourth and received the Sportsmanship award. Team Z was allowed to compete in the world competition because of its fourth-place finish in the state competition when a space opened up.

According to Sadler, the competition in the world event was tough and competitive. PEMS teams were in a division with teams from Paraguay, Australia, Russia, and Ecuador.

The PEMS teams made it to the finals in each of their divisions but were eliminated and didnt go beyond that. All 50 states competed in the world competition except Alaska and every continent was represented except Antarctica.

Sadler said, We had an exceptional year, and we are already planning for the next.

PEMS is an accredited State of Tennessee STEM School, and was the first middle school in the county to receive that recognition.

PEMS principal Jackson Howell said, Our robotics program has been an integral part in our STEM accreditation. The amount of work that Mr. Sadler and his team members put into having a successful program is unmatched. The transformation from a start-up program to the amount of success we have experienced is more than I ever would have imagined. It is a program that embodies our total learning community-teachers, students, parents, and community support.

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Portland West robotics club scores in world competition - The Portland Sun