Added on November 25, 2019 Sara Swanson

Middle school robotics team reaches state competition

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Photo credit Daniella Kippnick. Collaboration with Semi finals alliance partners in the robotics pit area.

by Caiden Kippnick, freshman at Manchester High School and member of Manchester Robotics

Manchester’s middle school robotics team #11193, The Flying Dutchbots, is advancing to the state championship for the third consecutive year. To get to this point, a lot has happened along the way.

A few days before the season kickoff, former robotics coach Matt Hall left for another job. Within a day of his departure, the many robotics mentors had a meeting and pulled together to keep the team alive. Mr. West, a long time industrial arts teacher at the Jr/Sr High School and the head of set and design for drama club, stepped up to the role of coach. Mr. West has been a huge part of the high school robotics team’s success since its beginning and let the middle school teams start using his room and shop a few years ago.

“We wanted to make sure Manchester kids have an opportunity to learn and grow in FIRST robotics- especially this group because most have been involved for years and this is their last season of FTC, the middle school level. The kids discovered that the team itself makes up approximately 13% of Manchester’s 8th grade,” said Daniella Kippnick, a mentor who has been with the middle school team since its beginning. Her son, Logan, now a freshman at Manchester High School, is very dedicated to the team. Even though he is now in high school, he still attends meetings to mentor programming and help with media. “My mentor, Mr. Fillyaw, has sacrificed and dedicated a lot of time since the beginning of the Manchester robotics teams. He helped me gain the programming knowledge I have now. I would like to give back to help the younger students the same way he has helped me. Mr. Fillyaw has been very helpful this year as a consultant to the FTC (middle school) team. I’m looking forward to learning more from him in the coming FRC (high school) season.”

The middle school season is at a very high point thanks to the help of many mentors. There are a lot of robotics graduates and parents who have helped. Many have been dedicated since robotics started in Manchester in 2016. The robot designs have been getting better with more experience and knowledge. Everyone involved with the team thinks that Matt Sprunk is deserving of extra recognition. He has been a dedicated mentor for the last two seasons helping to bring the robot’s robustness and design to the next level. Everybody on the team is incredibly grateful for his contributions. The team is working to build closer ties during the offseason. “We are working to build a deeper understanding of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) and robotics in the community with many off-season meetings to build more outreach and learning opportunities, Andy Galicki is an instrumental part of this” said Daniella Kippnick. “We are working to build stronger teams and a deeper engagement with the community in a collaborative effort with monthly planning and team meetings.”

The way the team engaged with the judges and expressed their understanding of importance in outreach has led the team to win the Connect and Motivate awards. The team was second place last weekend for the most prestigious award at the middle school level – the Inspire Award. The award demonstrates a role-model team who embodies what FIRST robotics is all about. Another requirement is a well-built and well-planned robot design, and a detailed engineering notebook. The engineering notebook is a journal that documents the design process, outreach within the community, a summary of the team’s season, challenges, and what gets done at every meeting. Daniella Kippnick helped mentor the engineering notebook. “The kids working with the engineering notebook have been wonderful communicators, very hands-on this season, embodied the FIRST concept of being Gracious Professionals^® by stepping up to do some things they didn’t originally want to do. They got the jobs done, and did them well.”

A few weeks ago, the team had their first competition in Canton. The Dutchbots won the Motivate award. There were a few factors that were out of the team’s control that caused them to lose their first two games. Overall they did okay, however, it was the story of everybody coming together that won them over. “The judges were very interested in our team and what we have been doing to be successful. They were impressed with how we have collaborated to overcome all of the unexpected challenges this season.” said mentor Daniella Kippnick. “We helped prep the team for the important judge interview and guided them in capturing the details of this season in our engineering notebook. The engineering notebook is one of the key factors to a teams level of success in the middle school level. The judging interview is their opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and involvement. I was fortunate to sit in the back during their interview and watch how wonderful the kids stepped up and met the challenge. We are incredibly proud of them and all the effort, spirit, and teamwork they have shown this season!”

In Mason last weekend, things also began in an unfortunate manner. The team lost four out of their five games, mostly because of penalty points that came as accidents. However, after some heavy scouting, the #2 seeded team chose them as alliance partners for the playoffs. They didn’t win the competition, but the judges once again took their judging interview and details in their notebook into consideration. This led the team to win the Connect Award, third place for the Motivate Award, and most importantly, second place for the Inspire Award. According to the complicated rules, the team earning second place for the Inspire award is the third team that advances to the state championship.

If you would like to help support the team, please contact Mark West at Manchester Jr/Sr High or Daniella Kippnick.

The 2019 FIRST^® in Michigan State Championship the Dutchbots will be competing in is at Kellogg Arena in Battle Creek on December 13-14. We hope to see some Manchester faces there!