Seguin students represented the District on Jan. 21 at the Texas Computer Education Association's Area 13 Robotics Championships. Two teams from Barnes Middle School, named the Flavyrs and Bat Juan, swept the top two spots in the Intermediate Inventions competition in which teams must create something useful using a Lego EV3 robot as a base. The Flavyrs, comprised of Skylar Germany and Noah Rodriguez, took home first place with their automatic pet feeder. Bat Juan, which includes Adrian Martinez, Luis Hernandez, AJ Rodriguez and Jose Montantes, place second with their bionic hand invention. 

The Flavyrs -- (l-r) Noah Rodriguez and Skylar Germany

Bat Juan -- (l-r) Luis Hernandez, Adrian Martinez, AJ Rodriguez and Jose Montantes

The Arena competition requires teams build and program a robot to complete a series of tasks within a four foot by four foot arena. Tasks vary in difficulty and point value. In the Intermediate Arena category, the Rodriguez Elementary Team 1 put together three solid rounds and solidly secured a second place finish. The team consisted of fifth graders Noah Lara, Harper Wilson, Evellin Juarez and Raymond Pelcastre. Overall, Matadors placed six teams in the top 12 out of a total of 38 teams from the area.

Team Rodriguez 1 -- (l-r) Evellin Juarez, Harper Wilson, Noah Lara and Raymond Pelcastre

Team Rodriguez 1 in action.

Rodriguez Team 2 finished seventh out of 38 teams.

Weinert Elementary arena teams secured 4 of the top 17 places on the day.

Four teams of young engineers represented Koennecke proudly on Jan. 21.