Northport and East Northport Middle School robotics clubs held a friendly round robin tournament at East Northport Middle School on January 31!  The clubs had hoped to compete at a regional competition in early January, but the event went virtual.  The district wanted to provide an in-person opportunity for students, so ENMS faculty advisor Steven Braverman and NMS faculty advisors Christopher Smith and Christine Maki-Carrol put together a highly successful in-house friendly competition between the two middle schools in place of the virtual competition. 

The original competition was sponsored by RoboticEducation.org and this year was called the “VEX IQ Challenge Pitching In.”  While the schools opted to host their own in-house event, they used the same guidelines of the original competition. Two robots compete in the teamwork challenge as an alliance in 60 second long teamwork matches, working collaboratively to score points.  There are 22 scoring objects on the 6’x8’ playing field affectionately known as “lemons”. The object of the game is to score as many points as possible with your alliance partner by moving or pitching lemons into the goals, clearing corrals, and hanging on a bar at the end of the match. 

21 students participated among the two schools and any student member of the school’s robotics club was able to participate. Both teams were awarded for participating and built successful robots. 

Looking ahead, the district plans to compete in the regional competitions next year with the hope they return to in-person.