Jan 12 2015
Grandville Public Schools has always been a leader in competitive robotics. The school district started with one High School FIRST Robotics team in 1998.
That team, founded by a Grandville High School teacher and some engineers from X-Rite, has multiplied over the years. There are now three FIRST Robotics teams at Grandville High School, and they are known across North America for student-designed, student-built robots.
This year, the RoboDawgs program has set new records in another robotics program, VEX Robotics. The VEX Robotics Competition is the largest and fastest growing high school and middle school robotics competition in the World. There are currently more than 10,000 high school and middle school VEX teams across all 50 states and 32 countries. Grandville High School and Middle School both field multiple VEX Robotics teams which compete in weekly robotics leagues, as well as competitions at the regional, state, and international level.
Last Saturday, Grandville Public Schools qualified its 10th VEX Robotics team for the Michigan State Championship to be held on February 22 at MSU's Jenison Fieldhouse. This sets a new record related to the number of teams one school district has advanced to a State Championship - for Grandville, in the State of Michigan, and in North America. In comparison, Grandville had never advanced more than four teams to the VEX State Championship in previous years.
In addition to qualifying for the State Championship, Grandville VEX teams have brought home 29 trophies over the last three months – another District record.
A pair of Grandville teams (244A and 288C) won the West Michigan Early Fall VEX League, and another Grandville High School team (288B) won the Excellence Award.
At the AutoDesk West Michigan VEX Tournament, Grandville teams won the Build Award (team 248E), the Create Award (team 216C) and a Judges Award (team 244A). Team 216G brought home a Tournament Champion trophy from this event, team 216D won the Programming Skills event, and team 288E brought home a second place trophy in the Robot Skills event.
The RoboDawgs moved on to the Walmart Northwest Michigan VEX Qualifier, where three Grandville teams played together to earn Tournament Champion trophies (teams 216A, 244F, and 288C). Team 216A claimed the Excellence Award at that event, and Grandville teams also brought home the Create (team 248F), Energy (team 244D), and Think (team 244A) awards.
Grandville teams did exceptionally well in the West Michigan Late Fall VEX League, with an all-Grandville alliance (teams 244A, 244C, and 288A) finishing in second place. Team 216A took top honors in the League, bringing home the Excellence award.
An alliance of Grandville teams (216A, 248E, and 288C) also won the next state qualifying event, the West Michigan Holiday VEX Tournament. Team 248E won the Excellence award, and team 216D brought home the Programming Skills trophy. The Design award was won by Grandville's 216C.
More than 100 Grandville High School and Middle School students compete on 20 local VEX teams. Students on teams qualifying for the State VEX Championship include:
Grandville Middle School: Josh Symonds, Kyle Petersen, Ingrid Perea, Jordynn West, Luke Timmer, Adrianna Nelson, Daron A. Lee, Will Doyle, Gavin Helder, Zach Velko, Kayla Simonte, Carlos Bays, Juddah Hulsebus, Owen Green, Isaac Fitzpatrick, Aiden Vanderveen, and Gibson Carpenter
Grandville High School: Brittany VanTuinen, Evan Vandermate, Drake Sytsma, Jason Spoelman, Coley Spicuzza, Fred Pokora, Gavin Peddie, Jarod Parks, Ariel Merrill, Ariana Martinez, Rebecca Licata, Timothy Leaver, Tyler Jack-Shilling, Anneke Howerzyl, Skijlar Howerzyl, Andy Hobelsberger, Heath Haverdink, Dakota Hamilton, Gabby Gozzi, Michael Furman, Matthew Djumoah, Breanna DeJong, Taylor Burns, Lucas Buck, Julianna Buck, Nickolas Brattain, Thomas Bos, Josh Bolter, Linnea Berg