Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy’s competitive Beak Squad robotics team for Grades 5-6 consists of three squads – Black, Purple, and Silver – who will each be bringing their robots to compete at the State Championship on 03/10/23, in Marion, Ohio. This is the first time this age group has gone to State for robotics at CHCA.

The team competed in two Qualifying Tournaments this year, where all three squads placed in the top percent at both competitions. At the most recent Qualifying Tournament, the Purple Squad earned 2^nd place in the Teamwork Challenge and won the highest award at the competition, the Excellence Award. The Black Squad was awarded an invitation to State based on their performance and Skills Standing, which is a ranking system at both the state and world competition levels. The Silver Squad also received an invitation to State based on their Skills Standing, and received the Create Award at their most recent tournament.

Beak Squad team members followed the Engineering Design Process to produce robots ready to compete in the season’s challenges. This included creating Engineering Notebooks, and programming to compete in the Autonomous Challenge. This was all student-centered, with the students doing all the work, only guided by their coach and mentors.

CHCA’s Beak Squad team members are as follows:

Black Squad: Reid Blythe, Rees Hargis, Luke Ozarchevici, Madison Moran (and missing from photo Janelle Idris)

Purple Squad: Dimena Whembolua, Benjamin Romanello, Andrew Cullen, Jackson Barnum, and Isabella Cortina Attias      

Silver Squad: Alice Polusmiak, Jaleyah Adkins, Jacob Werner, Chase Baginski, Luke Sorenson (and missing from photo Kitan Aina)

“Our Beak Squad has excelled this year,” shared CHCA Teacher and Robotics Coach Rebeca Hardy. “This is our second year as a VEX IQ competition team and we could not have prayed for a better outcome. Each squad has put in countless hours beyond typical practices. They have truly earned their places to compete at State!”

The competition can be live streamed here.

Did You Know: 

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.