Potential engineers from nine TN schools gathered at annual robot-building contest

Janel Shoun | 

McFadden Middle School’s red robot “MOM” and David Lipscomb Campus School’s mechanical creation once again dominated the Music City BEST Robotics Competition, sponsored by the Raymond B. Jones School of Engineering and held at Allen Arena Saturday, Oct. 27.


HEAT Robotics of Lewis County High get set to move cargo.
DLCS brought a techno-mascot along with their robot.
McFadden's sporty robot collected the most cargo.
Ravenwood's photogenic robot had the feminine touch .
Bellevue home schoolers debuted the Darth Vader robot.
Patriot Memorial Academy's robot collected the third-most cargo.
Cheered on by mascots, cheerleaders and hundreds of fans, the McFadden robot earned the most points by collecting the most “supplies” for a fictional Martian base in the competition themed “2021: A Robot Odyssey.”


In addition to robot performance, the nine middle- and high-school teams from throughout Tennessee competed with robot mascots, matching T-shirts, elaborate booths decorated in engineering themes, project notebooks and Web pages detailing their experiences creating their robots.


David Lipscomb won the Overall BEST Award, which considers the team’s performance in all of these areas. McFadden and David Lipscomb will proceed to the regional finals at Auburn University on Dec. 7-8. Last year, David Lipscomb earned the most robot performance points and attended the 2006 regional finals.

BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology), is a 14-year-old, nationwide program that challenges middle and high school students to build their own robots to complete a designated task. Teams can only use the specific materials supplied to them six weeks before the competition – such as plywood, PVC pipe, duct tape, bicycle inner tubes, Velcro and various polymer machine components.

Music City BEST Robotics Awards

Bellevue Home School Group
Best Rookie Team
Best Home School
Best T-shirt Design

David Lipscomb Campus School
Overall BEST Award
Most Robust Machine
Best Project Notebook
Best Table Display & Interview
Second place in robot performance points

Lewis County High School
Best Webpage Design

McFadden Middle School
First place in robot performance points
Best Middle School Team
Best Costumes
Best Spirit & Sportsmanship
Founder’s Award for Creative Design
Second place for the overall BEST Award.

Mt. Juliet High School
Blood, Sweat & Duct Tape Award

Patriot Memorial Academy
Third place in robot performance points

Ravenwood High School
Most Photogenic Robot

West End Middle School
Teacher of the Year, Cliff Cockerham
Mentor of the Year, Rob Ogilvie
Best Oral Presentation
Fourth place in robot-performance points
Third place in the overall BEST competition










































BEST fans are the best fans ever.
Teams created booths on an engineering theme.

Home schoolers love robotics!