Smith MS students place in robotics challenge

Smith Middle School students Brett Waples, left, Tyler Ellis, Gabe Swift and Drew Hovanetz placed 10

Seven teams of students from Smith Middle School competed at the All-Earth EcoBot Challenge, held at the Reliant Center on Saturday, April 17.
One Smith team, Recon Robotics, placed 10th in the Best in Robotics category. The team members are Tyler Ellis, Gabe Swift, Brett Waples and Drew Hovanetz.
Each team was required to build its NXT robot and program it to perform different tasks in a limited amount of time. The students also had to create a five-minute informative marketing presentation about a robot that their team designed to sell to the public. Their robot was required to perform an action that would benefit Planet Earth.
Smith's students competed against teams from the greater Houston area,as well as Corpus Christi and Austin. Awards were given to the top 10 in the categories Best in Robotics, Best in Marketing and Best Overall.
"All of the teams worked very hard," said Smith Middle School sixth-grade science team leader Doreen Jarvis. "I am very proud of the students' effort, dedication and hard work."