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Robotics

Link to news coverage of Kelton going to World in FTC Robotics

Jr High Girls Demonstrating Invention at Region 16

On Saturday January 13th, the Kelton Junior High Robotics team traveled to Region 16 in Amarillo for the TCEA inventions competition. This competition is held annually and top placing teams move on ... [read full article]

Kevin Dougherty helping students with coding.

The team is working on improving the autonomous program. Autonomous is an intelligent agent in software entities that carry out some set of operations on behalf of a user or another program with some degree of independence, and is doing so, employ some knowledge or representation of the user's goals or desires.

Brock and Mark working on the FTC Kelton Robot

The team hopes these improvements will make a difference in earning points. The binder team is working on building a binder of their failures and success for the competition. The team hopes that they will spread gracious professionalism and succeed in the upcoming competitions.

 

FTC State Champion Team

2017 FTC Champion Team

Robotic Chinchillas participated in state UIL in Austin on Saturday the 20th of May. This event invited teams from all over Texas to participate. With the help of their alliance members from Bush ... [read full article]

 

Mark Herndon is nominee for the FTC Dean Award

Mark Herndon is an exemplar nominee due to his role in creating a successful FIRST competition team at Kelton STEAM Academy. Mark has been competing in FIRST competitions for 3 years. His personal interest in robotics, programming and innovation are some contributing factors in what lead to the creation of a FIRST program at Kelton. Mark realizes the value of technology and is wise beyond his years as to the use of technology to better society in the future. He has been the builder, driver, and designer on several teams beginning when he was in the 8th grade. Since 2015 Mark has served in a leadership position on a team and also has served as an adviser for other teams in our school. Mark excels in the programming side and good at problem solving bugs. Because of his interest in Robotics Mark has created two state champion robots and made it to super regionals. With the success of his FIRST teams, Mark has helped inspire a junior program of lego robotics as a preparatory way for younger students to learn about the basics of programming and competition. He spends time mentoring his younger counterparts and helping foster creativity in others. Kelton STEAM Academy is isolated in the Texas Panhandle, and Mark has been one of the leading activists for creating a contest and promoting this team. He has been featured on the regional News Channel 7 (10) to promote the activities that FIRST Robotics has allowed him to participate in. Mark sees the value that FIRST has for him beyond the scope of high school competition. The 21st century skills he has developed via robotics have helped foster an interest in engineering and having inspired him to pursue post-secondary education at Texas Tech with the hopes of becoming employed by NASA. Mark is an innovative student with high aspirations for his future. 

 

 

 

Robotics From Previous Years

Great Job, Kelton FTC Robotics Team, at Super Regionals (which comprised the 12 Southern States)

The Robotic Chinchillas from Kelton, Texas went to the Super Regionals competition in San Antonio, Texas on Tuesday March 8 - March 11th to compete against 72 teams from 12 different states. This is the furthest anyone has ever made it in a competition from Kelton School. The Robotic Chinchillas did extremely well considering this is there first year doing FTC (First Tech Competition). The objective for this competition was to construct a robot that would be able to place two plastic men into a rescue bin outside of the field, move debris (blocks and balls) into a scoring zone or into the two buckets for your alliance that are placed on the mountain. With this competition being two minutes and thirty seconds long, you can score eighty points by hanging from the top of the mountain; the Robotic Chinchillas can successfully complete all tasks. Out of the 72 teams that were there, The Robotic Chinchillas placed 24th. They plan to advance to World next year with an even more strategized plan.

 

 

 

 

 

Kelton S.T.E.A.M Academy went to Lubbock, Texas on Saturday February 20, 2016 for the State FTC Robotics competition. The Robotic Chinchillas (which consists of Brock Buckingham, Jayton Couch, Mark Herndon and Chelsie Jasper) placed 1st. The Robotic Chinchillas had an average of 200 points per round; there are 4 preliminary rounds, 3 semi-final rounds and 2 final rounds. The Robotic Chinchillas will advance to Nationals where we will take on all of the 12 southern states which are; Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida. Nationals will be held in San Antonio March 9-11th, 2016. If the Robotic Chinchillas advance from Nationals, they will move on to the World FTC Championship. The World FTC Championship can be held in places like China and Germany but for now, the location is undetermined.

 

President: Jasmine

Vice President: Mark

Secretary: Chelsie

 

Sponsors/Coaches: Roy Herndon, Corrie Orr, Kevin Dougherty, Tori Coulter and Philip Hall