MBS finds success in VEX IQ State Championships

Mountain Brook Schools’ Robotics team has seen its numbers grow from six to more than 100 students since it started three years ago.

“We’re really growing, and I’m proud of that for y’all,” said Mountain Brook Junior High robotics and computer science instructor James Salvant.

He said 22 teams, five schools and two homeschool programs competed in Mountain Brook robotics this year.

Salvant is the sponsor of Mountain Brook Schools’ VEX IQ Competition Robotics Club, an afterschool club that participates in events throughout the year. He started the club as a way to give all students a place to fit in Mountain Brook schools.

“Robotics has provided that for many of our students,” Salvant said.

This year, MBS Robotics had six teams in the elementary division and six in the middle school division during the VEX IQ State Championships, and three teams in the middle school division competed at this year’s World Championships April 23-25. 

“Y’all did awesome,” Salvant told this year’s robotics students. “Whenever Mountain Brook showed up to a competition, y’all had people shaking in their boots.”

In the elementary division of state, three MBS teams made it to the finals, and three scored in the top 10. In the middle school division, Team 3133A won the Robot Skills Champion Award; Team 31337A won the STEM Challenge Award; Team 31337D received a high skills score, and Team 31337P earned the excellence award. 

With each level of competition, the MBS teams have worked to build upon or improve their robots and projects. The team participating in the STEM Challenge presented how they planned to “bring it up a notch for worlds” during a Robotics Party at MBJH in April, just a few weeks before the world championships.

In their original project, Team 31337A — The Nutria Rats — took apart old laptop batteries to find good battery cells. They then repurposed those batteries to create a rechargeable battery pack that powers an electric bike they constructed. The students then worked with local business Eagle Solar and Light to get a solar panel, which can help keep the battery pack charged or help charge the battery during the daytime.

“The reason why we did the batteries and made our own battery pack is because we wanted to remedy the problem of battery recycling,” said team member Fletcher Nunnelley.  “A lot of times, people will recycle batteries for you, from laptops, but a lot of times they will send them to other countries where a lot of people in poverty will take them apart and strip the battery of lead.”

That process is “harmful to the people and the environment,” Nunnelley continued, so they chose to recycle the batteries in a new way.

The addition of solar panels helped take their STEM project “to the next level,” which is needed in worlds. “We would be able to compete with that [bike], but in order to win we would have to go to the next level,” said team member Virginia Kate Brandt.

While Mountain Brook robotics is in five schools, there are only designated sponsors at Mountain Brook Elementary (Jennifer Jinnette and Shannon Millhouse), Brookwood Forest Elementary (Sharon Mumm) and MBJH. 

“Now, I’m trying to get it in every single school,” Salvant said.

In the 2017-18 school year, MBS Robotics will have an established club in each Mountain Brook City School “to provide students with an opportunity to start robotics in elementary school and continue that experience through high school,” Salvant said. Salvant will also teach a Robotics class next year, in addition to sponsoring the after school club. 

Anyone interested in becoming a sponsor of Mountain Brook Robotics can contact Salvant at salvantj@mtnbrook.k12.al.us.