Teachers invited to free workshop on robot-building contest for 6th-12th-graders

Janel Shoun | 

Middle and high school teachers throughout the state are invited to a March 1 training program at Lipscomb University for all those interested in leading a student team to compete in the annual Music City BEST Robotics Competition in October 2008.

Music City BEST Robotics is an annual engineering competition in which middle and high school students build a robot, write a project notebook, make an oral presentation, create a display showcasing their work and participate in numerous other activities that help them see applications to the science and math they are learning in school.

The training session for potential leaders will be held at 9 a.m.-3 p.m., Saturday, March 1, in McFarland Hall on the Lipscomb University campus, One University Park Drive, Nashville. There is no registration fee for the training and lunch will be provided.

The first hour, from 9-10 a.m., will be designed specifically for teachers with little to no background in how the Music City BEST competition works. This hour is an opportunity for newcomers to the program to decide if it is right for their school.

From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., is a detailed training covering team organization and logistics, program schedule, robot design and awards. This training will cover the entire scope of the program and highlight the direct connections between the concepts taught in the classroom and science and engineering careers.

Music City BEST 2008, held at Lipscomb in Nashville, will boast the theme “Just Plane Crazy.” There is no registration fee for schools to participate and Lipscomb University provides all the initial components to build the robot. In 2007, more than 300 Tennessee students participated in Music City BEST, and its umbrella program -- BEST Robotics -- involved 11,000 students from 600 schools nationwide in last year’s competitions.

To reserve your place in the workshop, contact Karen Gibbs at 615.966.6244 or Karen.gibbs@lipscomb.edu. For more information about the workshop or about BEST Robotics, contact Michael Colletti at 931.221.3744 or michael.colletti@trane.com.