The EM Smith Middle School students mentioned below are participating in the CREATE U.S. Open Robotics Championship in Council Bluffs, Iowa April 6th-10th. If you see them out and about, send them some encouragement and kudos. We are very proud of their efforts.
6th Grade
Sarah Castillo
Sachee Patel
Mike Petrus
Lance Stonebreaker
Angelica Villasana
7th Grade
Jase Galbreath
Josh Gonzalez
Alex Loya
Jay Patel
8th Grade
Anissa Calamaco
Jett Landry
Hannah Landry
Ashley Rodriguez
Anthony Villasana
Our Sinton High School Challenge Team did very well against Gregory-Portland High School. This blogger won’t give away all the details, but will post the stream once it airs on KEDT TV in Corpus Christi, Texas. They have another meet tonight against the King Mustangs. Go Pirates! All of Sinton is cheering you on!
Now in its tenth season on KEDT, Challenge showcases area high school academic teams in a rousing competition as spirited as any as any football game. Host Eric Boyd starts the competition this season with 24 South Texas High Schools, but only one will be our champion! Sinton High School Challenge Team won the event against the London Pirates that aired January 1, 2015. View Sinton High School’s Team from January 1st here: http://www.caller.com/news/education/challenge/kedt-tv-challenge-january-1-2015
Sinton will be aired this Thursday, January 15th at 6:30 pm, this time they’ll will be playing against Gregory-Portland. Tune in to root them on!
Congratulations to the following
Challenge Team members:
Hannah Curry
Oscar Cantua
Josh Lindeman
Gwyn Hartung
Riley Seago
Eliza Thomas
Team Manager:
Mikaela Barlow
The program emphasizes quick recall of factual material in all major disciplines — math, science, social studies, language arts, and fine arts — and a few questions about current events, movies and TV, sports and South Texas people, places and events. Contestants try to answer questions more quickly than members of the opposite team.
The winning school will take home the Challenge Cup to be displayed in their school trophy case – plus bragging rights of being the very “best and brightest” in the South Texas. Scholarships for college are awarded to members of the top four schools.
Challenge will also recognize outstanding players by inviting them to participate in an All Star game. Participants for this game are selected on an individual basis, but still represent their schools. All players in the All Star game will be rewarded for their selection and participation with scholarships and prizes.
A huge thanks to Heather Barlow for sponsoring this dynamic team!
Student Teams Compete at VEX Robotics Tournament at Space Center Houston
The robotics club from Smith Middle School, sponsored by Ernie Soliz their GTT instructor, traveled to the VEX Robotics tournament on Saturday, Nov. 15, at Space Center Houston (1601 NASA Parkway, 77058). The SMS Robotics Club is in its second year of competition.
VEX Robotics is a high-end robotics platform that requires students to design, build, and program robots to perform complex tasks in highly competitive two-team alliances. Middle-school and high-school students compete throughout the year in an effort to make it to state, national, and world-level tournaments.
This year’s competition is called VEX Skyrise and challenges participants to score the most points by completing a combination of various tasks, such as stacking cubes, placing cubes in certain “goal” zones, and building “skyrises,” or tubular towers on which cubes can be stacked. Twenty-seven teams have signed up to compete, including teams from Reagan HS, Lamar HS, Carnegie Vanguard HS, Waltrip HS, Washington HS, The Rice School, and the Young Women’s College Preparatory Academy. Smith Middle School competed against these high school teams and scored well!
“Our STEM Robotics program gives our students the opportunity to deploy twenty-first century skills and work as a team with other SMS students in a creative and innovative environment. When our students have the opportunity to travel and participate in competitions, they form allies with other Robotics teams from around the state to investigate, analyze, and evaluate the strengths of competing teams. By participating in STEM activities during middle school, students build confidence, connect to real life experiences, and form networks and partnerships with career professionals in the field of STEM” said Smith Middle School Principal, Jennifer Davis.
Smith Middle School completed the qualifying matches with events rankings of 4th place for Team 311j, 8th place for Team 311s, and 9th place for Team 311e. These teams advanced to the competition play-offs. Teams 311e and 311s lost in the quarterfinals, while Team 311j fell short of a win in the semifinals falling to the #1 ranked team in the world, Galena Park High School’s Team 1429D. Our middle school was competing against 23 other high school teams…what an effort to be proud of Sinton!
Sinton STEM Academy would also like to thank Ernie Soliz and Jennifer Davis for going to this event with our students. We would also like to thank Eugene and Pam Gonzales, Anna Castillo, and Monica Soliz for helping chaperone our kids, as well.
Our Smith Middle School Robotics Team will be competing this weekend in Houston. We wish them the best of luck and will post another message soon with the results. Good luck to an awesome group of future engineers. A big thanks to Ernie Soliz, Robotics Club Sponsor! Your continued efforts with our kids are impressive.
Ms. Rodriguez’s Library Template is linked on your Project Lead the Way Page. You can click the PLTW tab above or the link here.
Good luck and great design ideas to you!
http://sintonisd.us/stemacademy/?page_id=876
Project Lead the Way News
Students in Mrs. Rodriguez’s Civil Engineering & Architecture class were able to meet and speak with a practicing architect, Nick Gignac, of Gignac Architects located in Corpus Christi. Mr. Gignac explained the various roles and duties of an architect and engineers with respect to a major construction project. He also educated students about the universities in Texas which offer degrees in architecture while informing them on how to prepare for and what to expect at college. CEA is just one of four engineering classes offered through Sinton High School’s Project Lead the Way engineering pathway.
Click here to see what Victoria Ramos and Oscar Cantua
have accomplished with PLTW!
Sinton Elementary’s Community Problem Solvers are hosting a 5K Walk/Run. This is a T.E.A.M. Health Project for our Sinton Elementary Community Problem Solvers. Please come and join us for this fun-filled event! Each family member and individual must fill out the attached form:
