Two Pottstown Middle School - MontCo 360 teams and the Pottstown High School Engineering team represented our District and the Dana - Pottstown plant at the 3rd Annual Dana African American Resource Group (AARG) Challenge held at Dana World Headquarters, Maumee, OH.
The teams built and coded autonomous robots designed to score points by completing a specific set of challenges.
The two Montco 360 teams took 1st and 2nd overall, defeating 7 high schools and 2 middle schools representing DANA plants from across the country. (Toledo, OH Auburn Hills, MI Paris, TN Lafayette, IN Lugoff, SC Warren, MI Fort Wayne, IN) The PHS Engineering Team earned 4th overall and Judges Choice Award.
Montco 360 Blue Team: Rania Ait Lqol, Karen Cocar, Thomas Rose, Grace Eby, Alaina Ploysy, and Eric Clay
Montco 360 Red Team: Clara Johnson, Aiden Ondik, Meredith (Mo) Pope, John (JT) Ellwanger, and Cole McLaughlin
PHS Engineering: Triniti Rhodes-Fischer, Isaiah Perez, Ny Powell
It was a battle to the end. The Blue Team faced off against the Red Team in the semi finals of the winners bracket. The Red Team won the consolation bracket to challenge the Blue Team in the finals.
A win by the Red Team forced a best of 3 match round with the Blue team prevailing in the end.
The Pottstown teams supported each other and made some friends from other schools.
The Blue Team students have earned a scholarship opportunity to attend a summer workshop at Purdue University for a week on campus.
“I am so impressed with our teams’ resilience and teamwork throughout the competition. When their bots failed or broke, they focused on the problems at hand and solved them. They learned some real life lessons about perseverance.