By: Kendall Patterson
Staff Writer
On Nov. 21-23, about 60 students from Chester County High School attended the 2019 State Beta Convention at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville. This convention held about 4,500 students.
Of the 60 students, one group of four students and another individual won awards in the Robotics Showcase category and the Recyclable Art Division 1 category. These are 2 of about 70 categories of awards at the convention.
The group of four, Christopher Canaday, Tori Catlett, Riley Haltom and Annabelle Tomlinson, the Beta Robotics team, won fourth place in the Robotics Showcase with their Lego car. This car’s functionality is what made it more than a normal Lego. If an object was 70 millimeters away from the car, it would not start, the team explained.
The Chester County Robotics team collectively concluded that their presentation of this project is what resulted in them placing in their competition.
The last student, Tannah Hill, won third place in the Recyclable Art Division 1 category.
Her art piece as she explains it is ‘I took old DVDs, I cut them into pieces to make a mosaic and I baked them so that they would look shiny and like glass.” Hill said. “And I made a rooster and a chick out of that part.
She then put that on a piece of wood she painted and in a frame she made from an old ceiling tile.
Both the Robotics Team and Hill’s work will go on to the national level at the National Beta Convention in Fort Worth, Texas during the summer of 2020 since the top five of each category moves on to the national level to represent Tennessee.
“I just can’t believe the knowledge and the talent and the ability that came from this high school group,” said Chester County High School Teacher and Beta overseer, Celia Hunt. “It gives me such hope for our future, because knowledge is power and these students are problem solvers.”
