This weekend, three robotics teams from Rancho Santa Fe’s R. Roger Rowe School competed against 36 other teams at a regional championship. The event took place at Canyon Crest Academy.
In recent years, the robotics program has become somewhat of a hallmark of the Rancho Santa Fe School District. Rancho Santa Fe’s schools are known to offer a diverse range of programs for its students, including art, drama, music and athletics. Science, however, has been a focus.
According to the district website, technology is considered an important component of the schools’ academic programs, where the use of the Internet, multi-media authoring, and curriculum-based software are considered powerful and practical tools in the digital age.
The robotics program has been particularly successful at the R. Roger Rowe School, a combined elementary and middle school located in the Rancho Santa Fe district. Home to about 700 students, the school offers the advantage of small class sizes, distinguished academics, and countless extracurricular activities.
The program is supported by district board members, parent volunteers, teachers, and of course, the students themselves. “Where the program has gone is really remarkable,” said RSF School District Board Trustee Todd Buchner.
On February 21st, the RSF Portal Pounders team, made up of members Katherine Arnold, Tyler Bovenzi, Grayson Hudgens, DJ Nelson, Gabrielle Nguyen and Brandon Wong, remained undefeated throughout the day as they went into the final alliance rounds.
During the alliance rounds, the RSF Portal Pounders chose fellow schoolmates’ RSF Intergalactic Dragons teams as one of its alliance partners. The alliance won its initial matches and moved on to play the top-seeded team for the championship. The alliance ended up placing second due to robot malfunctions, but were still allotted one of only four spots given to move on to the Super Western Regionals.
R. Roger Rowe’s third team, the RSF Intercontinental Ballistic Ninjas, competed at four different qualifying tournaments the past several months that allowed them to compete during the February 21st event.
The Super Western Regionals Competition will be presented by Google, and will take place at the end of March at the Oakland Convention Center.
We wish the teams luck as they head to the Super Western Regionals!