by Wanda Pederson, OJSH Learning Commons Facilitator

The Onoway LiveWires have come away with a third place finish in a provincial robotics competition!

The OJSH robotics team, the Onoway LiveWires, is composed of seven students – three in grade 12 and four in grade 9. They have been meeting every Monday after school under the mentorship and guidance of CTS/Mechanics teacher Mr. Kyle Van Camp to plan, build and program a competition-level robot. Onoway Jr/Sr High School sponsored the LiveWires, believing that school teams such as this inspire 21^st century learning in addition to providing opportunities for students to experience technical and mechanical applications. 

The Onoway LiveWires entered a province-wide competition, First Tech Challenge (FTC), to test themselves against some of the province’s best teams. FTC is a competition for schools and extra-curricular clubs to meet to test their robots against other school’s designs and constructions. The five young men and two young women from OJSH as well as Mr. Van Camp were novices to robot construction, programming and competition. However, they took up the challenge and ultimately delivered a winning product.

Schools are given the robot challenge at the beginning of summer and have until February to design, build and, most importantly, program a robot. This year, the newly formed Onoway Livewires did not get the challenge until September and did not get their parts until November 14^th, putting the team 2 ½ months behind everyone else. In spite of the delay, the team came together quickly and enthusiastically set themselves up to making a competition-worthy robot.

The competition was held at the Telus World of Science in Edmonton on February 11. School teams from across the province attended the competition – some teams were five time winners of the event, some were from much bigger schools, and some teams had a wealth of experience and sponsorship. It was therefore a noteworthy achievement when the Onoway LiveWires not only made the semi-finals, but ultimately had a fourth place finish.

Mr. Van Camp shares that the team of Sam Day, Max Westerlund, Remmie Heinz, Charles Howie, Rochelle Serediak, Emily Lapachuk and Ben Jorgensen "exceeded his expectations in every way and that all of the team members showed a natural interest and passion."

Van Camp is very excited about where the robotics group may go over the next four years due to a strong base of student knowledge from the current grade 9 students and the ongoing support of OJSH.

Onoway LiveWires Compete Provincially