A team from the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Academy at Nimitz Middle School won the 2008 Northwest Vista College Middle School SpaceTeams Robotics Competition on Friday, August 1.

Students participated in lectures and lesson plans covering the history of robotics and predictions on the future of robotics. Rounding out their robotics experience, the students were also introduced to RobotC, the "language" used to program their robots.

"I wasn't too comfortable with the remote control and was happy to learn the RobotC language because I can use it in future competitions anyway," said seventh-grader Monique Garza, "STEMbots" Programmer. All team members were given specific jobs for the duration of the camp. Seventh-grader Elizabeth Chavis was given the job of Project Manager, and led team discussions and developed critical strategies used by the team during the competition. Ismael Ali, another seventh-grader, was the Program Tester, whose figured out if the final design was going to work or not. Ryan Rodgers, sixth-grader, was a Builder and Remote Control expert.

The Robotics Tournament this year consisted of 12 teams playing the game "VEX Bridge Battle," a unique and challenging team-based game which puts high school and middle school students' engineering and technology skills to the test as they aim to build the most innovative robots possible and work together to obtain the most points possible. Rodgers used defensive and offensive maneuvers to score 88 points during the last round to overtake the leading team by nine points, and did so with a little less than one second left on the clock.

Rodgers' team yelled out last-second strategy changes and he complied, going for two loose balls and one black ball, versus the automatic 10 points he would have scored if he had just parked on a 12"X12" square. With the clock at 10 seconds to go, he herded the three balls and then got them up a small ramp one at a time until he was left with the black ball. He then put the robot into reverse and "stepped on the gas" with two seconds left. Both the black ball and the robot fell into the scoring area with about a half-second left on the clock. In this game, points for balls placed in the corner goal are doubled if a black ball is placed in there as well.

The two week camp, which is one of several camps held at the college each summer specifically targeted female students who are traditionally underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.