Seventeen Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) middle and high schools competed Feb. 15 in the Southern Maryland VEX V5 tournament at the College of Southern Maryland (CSM) in La Plata.
The VEX V5 Robotics Competition, presented by the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation, is the largest and fastest growing middle school and high school robotics program globally with more than 20,000 teams from 50 countries participating in over 1,700 competitions worldwide.
Each year, an engineering challenge is presented in the form of a game. The challenge, called High Stakes, involves scoring rings on stakes placed around the field.
Two CCPS high school teams will represent CCPS on Saturday, March 8, at the state competition at Dundalk High School in Baltimore. These teams are:
The Warriors from LaPlata High School.
Kaizen from Thomas Stone High School.
The Warriors team consists of freshmen Pranesh George, Marcellus White, Elijah Merkle and Paul Blachek; sophomore Kodie Smith, and seniors Arman Major and Mark White. The team is coached by William Boehm, a technology education teacher at La Plata and Niki White, a community volunteer.
Kaizen consists of juniors Michel Bose-Cruz, Chris Hill and Blake Testerman. The team is coached by Daniel Meltsner, a technology education teacher at John Hanson Middle School.
Two CCPS middle school teams will represent CCPS on March 15 at South Hagerstown High School in Hagerstown. These teams are:
The Opps from Piccowaxen Middle School.
The Discos Ducks from Piccowaxen.
Team members of The Opps include seventh graders Alexander High, Colton Hancock, Harrison Wutka, and Troy Pettersen. The team is coached by Sandra Chisholm, a technology teacher at Piccowaxen, and Nancy Bedillion, a reading resource teacher at the school.
Members of team Disco Ducks include sixth grader Harper Fuchs, seventh graders Jeffrey Rawlings and Zachary Strybing; and eighth graders Liam Gibney and Drake Scott. The Disco Ducks are coached by Melissa Scott, a learning resource teacher at the school.
Two CCPS teams were honored as awardees:
All Torque from Westlake High School received the Judges Award. The award is given to teams that judges determined were deserving of special recognition, because of a team’s exemplary effort, professionalism and teamwork. All Torque team members are students from Westlake including junior Adrienne Briones and seniors Zaynab Abdul-Kareem, Jared Allsbrook, Samuel McLaughlin, Jaden Nelson, Mekai Grant and Bethel Sabila. The team is coached by Daniel Thompson, a technology education teacher at Westlake.
Kaizen won the Innovate Award. The award recognizes an effective and well-documented design process for a novel aspect of the team’s robot design or gameplay strategy.
About CCPS
Charles County Public Schools provides 28,162 students in grades prekindergarten through 12 with an academically challenging education. Located in Southern Maryland, Charles County Public Schools has 38 schools that offer a technologically advanced, progressive and high quality education that builds character, equips for leadership and prepares students for life, careers and higher education.
The Charles County public school system does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age or disability in its programs, activities or employment practices. For inquiries, please contact Dr. Mike Blanchard, Title IX/ADA/Section 504 Coordinator (students) or Nikial M. Majors, Title IX/ADA/Section 504 Coordinator (employees/ adults), at Charles County Public Schools, Jesse L. Starkey Administration Building, P.O. Box 2770, La Plata, MD 20646; 301-932-6610/301-870-3814. For special accommodations call 301-934-7230 or TDD 1-800-735-2258 two weeks prior to the event.
CCPS provides nondiscriminatory equal access to school facilities in accordance with its Use of Facilities rules to designated youth groups (including, but not limited to, the Boy Scouts).