Science teachers back in classroom
Robotics challenge might be in SW La.’s future
By Heather Regan White
news@americanpress.com
<p class="p1">Diana Fultz, W.W. Lewis Middle School robotics team sponsor and science teacher, is hoping to attract more involvement from the community in robotics competitions. </p><p class="p3">Fultz said the Calcasieu Parish School Board is introducing VEX, a robotic platform, into middle schools and the Sulphur High 9th Grade campus in the upcoming school year. </p><p class="p3">Middle school science teachers from W.W. Lewis, Vinton, Maplewood, LeBlanc, Iowa and Molo attended training this week at Sowela Technical Community College to learn how to code the VEX robots they will introduce to their students.</p><p class="p3">Teachers also learned about competition games and tournament guidelines. </p><p class="p3">Fultz said she hopes to organize a clawbot competition in October. She also wants to hold a qualifying competition later in the year to select teams for state competitions. </p><p class="p3">“We will start small, but our goal is to have premier competitions in Southwest Louisiana within a few years,” she said. “I want us to be capable of hosting as many teams that would like to participate.”</p><p class="p3">In order to do that, Fultz said she needs help. </p><p class="p3">“We need volunteers willing to train to be judges and referees and participate in these events,” she said.</p><p class="p3">Volunteers would need to commit in order to sustain annual events that would attract teams from throughout the country.</p><p class="p3">“Corporate sponsors would be great, too,” she said. “We want as many kids as possible, but we can’t do it alone.”</p><p class="p3">The training at Sowela was funded by the non-profit Robotics Education and Competition Foundation, which relies on donations from major corporations. The organization sponsors STEM education, teamwork, communication, and project-based experiences through the VEX IQ Challenge, VEX Robotics Challenge, and VEW U to students around the world. For more information, visit www.roboticseducation.org.</p>
<p class="p1"><strong>‘We will start small, but our goal is to have premier </strong><strong>competitions in Southwest Louisiana within a few years.’</strong>
<p class="p3"><strong>Diana Fultz</strong>
<p class="p4">W.W. Lewis Middle School
<p class="p4">science teacher and robotics team sponsor