Students compete in robot battle in Allen Arena Saturday

Janel Shoun-Smith | 10/15/2014

Music City BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology) gets students excited about building robots

Around 500 students are expected to participate Saturday in Lipscomb University and Nissan North America’s annual robotics bonanza: Music City BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology). Students in 14 Middle Tennessee schools, including Lipscomb Academy, have spent the last six weeks building their own robot designed to carry out a specific task, and they will put them to the test competing against one another from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Allen Arena.

While the students steer their robots to complete designated tasks on a game field spread out over the arena floor, cheerleaders, mascots and up to 2,000 friends and family will cheer on the mechanical competitors and their drivers. This year, the robots are constructing vehicles designed to move faux wind turbine equipment (small blocks, dowel rods or balls) through hazardous road conditions (obstacles on the game course).

“These students get to carry out a real, hands-on application of what they are learning in their science and math classes,” said Michael Colletti, hub director of Music City BEST, adjunct engineering professor at Lipscomb and technical specialist at Hayward Pool Products. “In the process they are learning a lot of the important things about teamwork. The program also introduces them to all the important aspects of engineering through assignments to write a notebook, create a marketing presentation and build an exhibit to showcase their team. They begin to see the bigger picture.”

The 2014 Music City BEST competition is coordinated by Lipscomb’s Raymond B. Jones College of Engineering and sponsored by Nissan North America, which has donated more than $300,000 since 2010 to support the college’s robotics program for youth.

“The BEST participants are learning the skills that engineers use every day,” said Rick Clonan, maintenance technologist at Nissan’s Smyna plant, who has worked for two years as a mentor for the Thurman Francis Arts Academy. The team has participated in BEST for five years and involves public middle school students from throughout the county and home school students.

“The older students definitely get the technical expertise out of the project. The younger students learn to work as a team. When my daughter attended the BEST robotics sessions, she would come home and ask me questions well beyond her grade level,” Clonan said.

“BEST robotics is the perfect complement to Tennessee’s middle grade science curriculum standards for the engineering design process,” said Stacey Burt, sixth-grade teacher at Discovery School and coordinator of the 32-person BEST team. This will be Discovery School’s seventh year at the Music City BEST competition.

“BEST enables me to engage my students at a much deeper level than anything I could accomplish in several 50-minute science class periods,” she said. “The hands-on applications and creative design required to accomplish the task is an experience unlike any that my sixth-graders have ever encountered. Win or lose on competition day, this program is a ‘game-changer’ for many of my students.”

Especially for girls, said Burt, who used the BEST program and its effect on middle school girls as part of her doctoral dissertation. “Of the 15 to 20 students who return to the team each year from eight different schools, 65 percent of them are females,” Burt said. “This program has had a profound effect on my female participants. At least three have committed to a future in engineering and are actively pursuing higher-level math and science in high school.”

Erika Motlow, teacher and coordinator of the first-time BEST team at Cannon County High School said the competition teaches her students to think. “With the rapid change of technology, our students will be asked to fill jobs that we cannot even imagine today. Giving students a challenge with a limited timeframe and the necessity to work as a team to develop and execute a design plan together provides an invaluable learning experience. They are being exposed to engineering design, manufacturing, marketing, leadership and too many other skills to list,” she said.

According to Motlow, who has started a STEM club at the high school, the BEST competition excited her students from the start and brought real-world engineering challenges to her scientific research and physics classrooms.

For example, while assembling the turntable for their robot’s lever arm, the students discovered the parts did not allow the arm to move smoothly. “The students had to determine what was happening and rebuild their design three times to find a solution that worked,” she said.

“Each year is a different task and you can never seem to predict what it will be. Knowing that you only have six weeks to design, build, and master the project gets the creative juices flowing pretty quickly,” said Marc Guthrie, sponsor of the BEST team at Central Magnet School in Murfreesboro. The Central Magnet team is one of the most successful teams, having progressed to the regional competition every year of Music City BEST and won the regionals twice. The team has also competed in the national and world BEST championships.

“It is very rewarding when students from five years ago come back and want to know how the team is doing and they let you know how BEST improved their lives,” Guthrie said. “The students who I had with me in the beginning are now pursuing degrees in engineering and related science fields. I like to think that this experience had a little bit on influence on their career choices.”

The public is invited to watch these schools’ robots compete and to get a taste of a future engineering career in robotics. Many schools also set up colorful, interactive display booths exploring engineering themes.