Robotics Program Builds on Success

St. Mark’s robotics program is building toward another epic year! Across the Middle and Upper School grades, boys have worked tirelessly to assemble and program state-of-the-art robots to compete in a number of competitions, both on the local and national stage. 

Fifth and sixth graders have been busy battling it out in the FIRST LEGO League, building and programming LEGO robots to complete a variety of engineering challenges. All four St. Mark’s teams earned awards at their respective tournaments: The MAVVRICKS earned 1st place Champion; Welostapiece earned 1st place Robot Game and 3rd place Champion; Finding Lego earned 3rd place Robot Game and 3rd place Project; and Squishy Gummies earned 1st place Robot Design.  

St. Mark’s fielded two teams in the FIRST Tech Challenge: the Byte Size Lions, consisting of seventh and eighth graders, and The Marksmen, consisting of ninth through twelfth graders. This competition follows a tournament structure, with teams advancing through a bracket system while also being judged on the quality of the engineering, design, teamwork, and presentation. Teams must think quickly on their feet, fixing issues that come up throughout the day and making continual adjustments to their robots before matches. 

Both teams received high honors. The Byte Size Lions were given the Think Award, which celebrates creative thinking and originality in the design process, and The Marksmen received the Inspire Award. The Grand Champion Award encompasses innovation, professionalism, engineering, and sportsmanship.  

The Marksmen robotics team also remained undefeated at the U-League Championship.  

“I’m amazingly proud of our team. We won by never giving up,” said Stewart Mayer, Makerspace director, who sponsors the robotics teams with Upper School science teacher Dan Lipin. “The Marksmen team made it to the World Championship last year, a remarkable feat for such a young team, and we hope to repeat this year!” 

A group of Upper Schoolers also participate in BEST Robotics, where students build a robot from a limited list of materials that competes on a large playing field to complete tasks. The team welcomed many new faces this year, some having competed in robotics for the very first time. They were amongs the top performers at the Dallas Hub Competition, which was a huge accomplishment.