BIXBY, Okla. — Bixby Middle School held its robotics competition today. It’s the largest robotics competition in Oklahoma for elementary and middle schoolers.
Hundreds of students from all over Oklahoma filled Bixby Middle School for the 2024 Bixby Battle of the Bots.
“Today is all about teamwork and working together and seeing how you can do the best you can,” said Traeton Dansby, the Bixby robotics coach.
Dansby said some students have been working on these robots since the first day of school.
“So, what the students are trying to do is figure out, ‘How can I design a robot to accomplish the challenge of this year?” and this year’s challenge is trying to pick up blocks and figure out how to score them, not necessarily who scores the most blocks, but who scores them in the most strategic way according to the rules,” Dansby said.
Dansby said the coaches can’t help the students build or program the robots at all. It’s all about learning and teamwork.
“What’s neat about robotics is we are tricking kids into learning these skills like math and science, like they don’t even realize they’re learning ratios, proportions, they’re learning aspects of mechanical engineering and they don’t know it, and so we’re tricking them into learning, which is always a really good thing as a teacher,” Dansby said.