Contributed by Rebeca Hardy

Upper Elementary is proud to be utilizing the Robotics Education and Competition Foundation’s VEXIQ robotics platform this school year. The Grades 5-6 robotics team, UE Beak Squad, has already experienced great achievement using VEXIQ along with the Engineering Design Process, collaboration techniques, and their own innovative ideas and drive each individual brought to the team. 

Led by CHCA Technology and Design Thinking Educator Rebeca Hardy, CHCA students built a driver-operable and autonomous-capable robot from the ground up. They also carefully documented their efforts via an Engineering Design Notebook. The UE Beak Squad’s hard work paid off at their first ever attendance at a Qualifying Tournament. The combination of all their dedicated energy lead them to be invited for a second interview, remain in the top 10% during the competition, chosen for finals matches, and making third place over all in attendance for elementary teams. Furthermore, at the conclusion of the tournament they attended on 1/29/22, UE Beak Squad obtained a ranking of #17 and #22 out of the entire state of Ohio.

"We are tremendously proud of our Upper E Beak Squad Team, shared Hardy. "Our season was a success because of their determination, dedication, and perseverance. We are already looking forward to next season and how we can apply what we've learned this year."

UE Beak Squad members are: Kitan Aina, Ella Anderson, Ellad Asefa, Brie Buesing, Drew Cullens, Rees Hargis, Janelle Idris, Zak Li, Benjamin Romanello, JT Sorensen, Kaitlyn Thompson, John Visconte, Noah Wedel, and Jacob Werner. 

CHCA is Internationally Ranked in Robotics and the ONLY area school that offers a curricular and extracurricular progression of robotics for students from Grade 3-12.