South's BEST Robotics Rocks Auburn Campus

In early December, with AU students hunkered down for finals, the AU campus  was uncharacteristically quiet -- with the exception of Beard Eaves Memorial Coliseum which was rocking with the energy of the 2000 middle and high school students in town for the 2007 South's BEST Regional Robotics Championship.

Briarwood Christian from Birmingham and W.P. Davidson High School from Mobile took top awards.

In September, teams of middle and high school students from across the nation received kits of standardized parts and were given the details of this year's BEST game. The students had six weeks to design, build and engage in head-to-head competition with their robot at their local competition sites.

Robot performing taskThis weekend, the winners of the 10 competitions east of the Mississippi, from Alabama to Connecticut, headed to Auburn to put their robots to the ultimate test. A second portion of the competition challenged the team's ability to market their creations using presentations, notebooks, displays, t-shirt designs and spirit.

"BEST is a community outreach activity, a workforce development activity and a recruiting activity," says AU BEST co-director, Mary Lou Ewald. 

Williamstown Middle School eighth grader Dan Collins from New Jersey says BEST is also a whole lot of fun.

"Since it's like a robotics thing, I thought it would be at the school of engineering. But when we pull up in our bus, we're at the coliseum and we can see the football field and the baseball field and the swimming facility ...  I'm into sports. I didn't think a robotics competition would be this big!"

According to Ewald and her co-director George Blanks, the goal is to use the sports-like excitement that this real-world engineering challenge creates to increase student understanding of and interest in math, science and engineering -- careers that are critical to our nation's security and future.

If the student's at this weekend's competition are any indication, the program is working and working well. 

"I joined BEST because it sounded neat and like something fun," says Williamstown Collins teammate Zoe Richman. "Now that I've done it, I am considering a career in engineering."

Andrew Foggert, a junior from W.P. Davidson High School in Mobile, Ala. has been on the team for two years. "When I first started I had no idea what was going on. I just watched and learned. Today, I am a leader on the construction team. I may end up an engineer, I may not. Either way I've learned a lot at BEST."

Teachers such as sixth-grade teacher Kevin Boggs from Woodlawn Beach Middle School in Gulf Breeze, Fla., report that the experience not only drives interest in science and engineering but also provides students with the tools they need to help prepare for college.  

 "It seemed like an excellent opportunity to get more science in our curriculum," he says. "However, it is much more. The kids learned a little bit of everything, especially teamwork. BEST sparks their imagination. It encompasses technical concepts, marketing concepts, craftsmanship, and presentation -- and it's all new to them. BEST is so much fun that many students don't realize how much they are learning."

Young boy controlling a robotAnd learn they do. Bobbie Borrelli of Williamstown Middle reports that you have to work together or nothing gets done. Teammate Victoria Joyce says that she learned to listen more carefully to what others were saying -- a skill that will serve her well throughout her life, no matter what profession she chooses.

BEST is also a powerful recruiting tool for the two colleges that sponsor the program -- the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering and College of Sciences and Mathematics.  

"We have students here today from 13 states," says Bonnie Wilson, recruiter for the College of Engineering.  Since many have never been to the South before or visited a college campus, Wilson makes sure they leave knowing that Auburn is a great place to go to school.

Richman is a case in point. "I didn't think of Alabama when I thought of robotics," he says.  "Then we got here and it wasn't at all what I expected ... and I mean in a good way!"

Wilson hopes that Richman will share this message with others when he returns to his school and community.

While on campus, students also had a chance to hear a talk by astronaut and director of engineering at NASA's Johnson Space Center Dr. Nancy Currie. Currie shared film footage of her last space flight -- the fourth mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope -- and talked about the role robots are playing in space exploration. Earlier in the day, female participants such as Micah McGuire, ninth grader from St. Paul's Episcopal School in Mobile, Ala., attended a special luncheon where Currie was the guest of honor. 

"I did not know what to expect when I got to Auburn," she says. "The event and the campus were impressive. The chance to have lunch with one of the nation's top astronauts, who is also a female, was really inspiring."

Fellow team member, eighth grader Beth Pickel concurs. "I've made a lot of good friends through BEST.  It opened up the world of engineering to me."

And that is exactly what BEST volunteers and sponsors had in mind.

Top game winners included: first, Briarwood Christian School in Birmingham; second, St. Paul's Episcopal School in Mobile; third, Milton High School in Milton, Fla., and championship round finalist, McFadden School of Excellence in Murfreesboro, Tn.  Winner of the BEST competition included: first, W.P. Davidson High School from Mobile; second, Seaside Neighborhood School from Seaside, Fla., and third, Wetumpka High School from Wetumpka, Ala. 

Full results are posted at www.southsbest.org.