Columbiana Middle School Robotics World Event!

Columbiana Middle School is incredibly proud of our robotics team, called "1984." This team is composed of 8th graders Michael Conrad, Chase Dugas, Aiden Rosario, and Oliver Vennetti. On March 1st, team 1984 competed in Marion, Ohio and collaborated with their Crestview team alliance to win the 2024 Ohio VEX IQ Robotics State Championship! During the event, our CMS team ranked 1st out of 43 teams who competed across the state of Ohio! Due to their success, this team is now headed to the VEX IQ Robotics World Championship in Dallas, TX from May 1st - May 3rd. For Michael, Aiden, and the CMS Robotics Club, this will be the second year in a row competing at the World Championship. They are eager to bring Chase and Oliver to this year's World event, and we are excited to see how they perform alongside 420 of the best robotics teams from around the globe.

This year, with the help of coach Justin Conrad, myself (Ashlee Sherwood), and the support of the community, we have been able to grow our Columbiana Middle School Robotics Club to include 2 elementary and 4 middle school teams. We have been blessed with dedicated and hard working students who made it possible for our program to advance 2 elementary and 2 middle school teams to the State Championship. In this year's competition, students were tasked with designing, building, creating code, and driving a robot to compete in the VEX IQ game, Full Volume. In doing so, students built upon their communication and collaborative skills by working with teams from schools across the state to come up with strategies to knock over, pick up, and dispense blocks into columns to maximize points scored. By being involved in VEX robotics competitions, our students have had opportunities to build STEM skills that will better prepare them for their future endeavors.

Team 1984's advancement to the World Championship comes with a financial strain to provide the resources needed to make this happen, and we need your help. Any funds that you are able to provide will be used towards our registration fee ($1,800), travel expenses, meals, and team uniforms for our students, chaperones, and coaches (coaches are excluded from receiving donations for team uniforms, and chaperones are excluded from receiving funds for meals and team uniforms). The CMS robotics program is so thankful for the ongoing support of the community, and we are thrilled to show what talent Columbiana Schools has to offer. Every donation will help ensure team "1984" is able to participate in this year's VEX IQ Robotics World Event. All donations will go directly to the CMS Robotics Club school account.