Students from Charles County Public elementary and middle schools competed in the 2013 College of Southern Maryland Junior (LEGO) Division robotics challenge held Saturday, April 13, at the La Plata campus. The annual event is part of CSM’s Institute of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (iSTEM), which provides programs to encourage students to pursue careers in STEM fields.

Thirteen Charles County teams earned awards at the event. Ninety teams from schools in Calvert, Charles, Prince George’s and St. Mary’s counties, as well as local private schools, competed in the event. A separate event for high school teams was held earlier this year. This year’s competition was titled “Green City,” and required teams to build and program robots that would simulate elements of biotechnology research. 

The Renewable Robots team from Gale-Bailey Elementary School earned a first-place award among competing elementary schools in the Creative Presentation Award category. This award is presented to the team that demonstrates an imaginative and creative presentation that highlights the team’s research and solution. Team members are third graders Terrell Funchess, Brandon Robertson and Nicholas Summers, fourth graders Brynna Bode, Madison Kavlick and Sarah Treadway, and fifth graders Torrance Funchess and Dominic Rollins. Team coaches are Gale-Bailey science teacher Erin Good, Nina Ogasawara, Gale-Bailey’s school counselor, and volunteer Kerry Dee.

Matthew Henson Middle School’s Team O-Prime received first place in the Innovation and Strategy Award category. This award recognizes teams that use solid engineering practices and a well-developed strategy to design and build an innovative robot. Team members are sixth graders Andie Angel, Kyrsten Honaker, Azanaa Hutchison and Evan Patterson. The team coach is Doug Cunningham, a social studies teacher at Henson. 

The Tigers team from T.C. Martin Elementary School earned a second-place award in the Robot Programming Award category. This award is given to teams that use good programming principles when building their robots, including clear, concise and reusable code. Team members are fourth graders Kayla Ashford, Quinnel Booth, Ryann Brown, Pamela Canterbury, Matthew Coccaro, Steven Houchin, Jacob Kerstner, Marissa Steury and Noah Whelan. The team coach is Martin science teacher Michelle Reeves.

Arthur Middleton Elementary School’s Ninja Owls team received second-place in the Innovation and Strategy Award category. Team members are third graders Royce Nguyen and Jalen Walker, and fifth graders Christian Baker, Aliah Brown, Deon Dandrade, Mikayla Davis, Travis Dye, Cody Jordan, Ali Ramamni, Andre Slade and Dominic Williams. The team coach is Middleton’s science teacher Jennifer Elder.

Two elementary school teams received awards in the Innovative Solution Project Award category. William A. Diggs Elementary School’s Ro