Omaha middle school heads to Robotics World Championships

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – Each year, schools across the world attempt to master a new game to compete at the VEX Robotics World Championships. It’s the largest robotics competition in the world where thousands of students representing an estimated 50 countries will gather in Dallas.

For the first time in about a decade, an Omaha Public Schools middle school is going to the robotic world championships.

“Most of our kids here have never seen a robot, let alone done anything with robotics,” said Sheri Cohen Vollmer, the robotics coach at Bluestem Middle School.

Her team started with 36 interested students; six dedicated ones remain. The school itself is new; it opened this school year. Eighth graders haven’t even populated the school yet, so the team consists of only 6th and 7th graders.

This year’s VEX challenge is to create a robot no larger than 18x18x18 inches and get“tri-balls” into the opposite goal for points.

“They start with a bag of nuts and bolts and metal and they have to create it and they have to program it,” said Cohen Vollmer. “As coaches, we’re just there to guide them.”

6th grader Dylan Serrano Acosta didn’t expect tears when he joined the robotics team.

“Robotics seemed like that club that I really wanted to do,” said Seranno Acosta.

But when their robot was bigger than the specifications, their hard work had to be disassembled.

“I was really sad that we had to tear down our robot.”

“I call this the sport of failing forward,” said Cohen Vollmer.

Though frustrating these six middle schoolers didn’t give up. Eventually, they found the goal.

“Our big question at the end of every match is, ‘Did you have fun, and what did you learn?’” said Cohen Vollmer.

Through learning robotics, they’ve also mastered important skills in the game of life.

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