Seaside Neighborhood School is a Winner in the 9th Annual BEST Robotics Competition!

Seaside Neighborhood School is a Winner in the 9th Annual BEST Robotics Competition!

Each fall, more than 18,000 students from over 850 middle schools and high schools participate in the Annual BEST Robotics Competition. BEST stands for Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology.  Seaside Neighborhood School (SNS) brought home seven BEST awards at last year’s Emerald Coast Hub competition, qualifying the team to advance to the regional contest, where the team was named the 2015 BEST robotics award winner.

This year, a team of 80 middle school students represented Seaside at the University of West Florida in Pensacola on Saturday, Oct. 29.  The competition expanded to include 23 schools from all five counties in the Emerald Coast region and this year’s theme was “Bet The Farm.” Teams had 42 days to build a robot that could harvest and deliver corn, turn on a water valve to keep crops hydrated, harvest and deliver tomatoes and lettuce to a farmer’s market stand, corral and feed pigs and document the engineering process along the way. A tall order!

Seaside Neighborhood School took home four awards in this years competition:

• 2nd place -BEST Award
• 1st place -Marketing Presentation
• 2nd place -T-shirt Design
• 6th place -overall Robot

This qualified Seaside (along with Woodlawn Beach Middle School, Gulf Breeze High School and Pace High School) to advance to the regional championship at South’s BEST Robotics competition, which comprises 16 hubs from the Southeast. It will be hosted at Auburn University Dec. 2-4, 2016.

“We are so proud of our students,” says Seaside Neighborhood School principal Kim Mixson. “This multi-faceted challenge provides many ways for all students to contribute their talents and get involved. Each and every student found a way to shine and stepped up as the smart and creative leaders they are.”

The whole SoWal community is proud of these students achievements.  The entire Seaside Robotics Team takes our communities best wishes for their final competition!

BEST Robotics Inc. (BRI) is a non-profit, volunteer-based organization whose mission is to engage and excite students about engineering, science, and technology, as well as inspire them to pursue careers in these fields. Through participation in this project-based STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) program, students learn to analyze and solve problems utilizing the Engineering Design Process, which helps them develop technological literacy skills. It is these skills that industry seeks in its workforce.

For more information on Seaside Neighborhood School, call (850) 231-0396 and visit www.seasideschool.net