Othello —Othello students from McFarland Middle School's Technology Student Association (an ASB club focused on technology skills) have qualified for the TSA National Tournament to be held in Orlando, Fla., after the March state convention. .
Now all they need is the money to get there.
Devan Lewis, a career and technical education teacher at McFarland Middle School, oversees the club.
“Unfortunately, our district does not have the ability to pay for (the trip) at this time because we are an ASB club so ASB would be paying for it,” Lewis said. “Our ASB has no funds.”
The state conference, held from March 13 to March 16, featured competitions on a number of technology-related topics. McFarland's students, who are part of the school's new His TSA Club, competed in five different categories, including the VEX IQ robotics competition, trebuchet competition, fairy tales, problem solving and cybersecurity.
McFarland's teams placed fourth and sixth in the VEX IQ category, with the Wahluke Middle School team taking the top three spots. Lewis said McFarland College was able to send a team as the fourth-place winner because the TSA national competition allows for a maximum of two teams per school, and teams must have at least two students to compete. It is said that it will be necessary.
Jackie Wilhelm, a parent of students in the club, said she estimates the total cost of the trip to be about $3,000 per student. Willem said five students are interested in participating and the club will need about $15,000 to accept students.
Whatever the group can raise together will be divided equally among the students, and the students' families will have to make up the difference, Wilhelm said. The entry deadline for the national competition is the end of this month.
“We are planning to hold a Mother and Child Ball later this month to raise enough funds to send as many children as possible to participate,” she said. “But as parents, we understand that we still need to figure out a big part to make that happen.”
The Mother and Child Ball will be held at MMS Gym on April 26th from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. Wilhelm said proceeds from the $40 admission fee will go directly to the TSA Club. Wilhelm also set up his GoFundMe page for people to donate directly.
“I want to continue to encourage them. I don't want them to think, 'My school can't pay for tuition, so the state is going to replace me,'” she said. Told. “I want to be able to provide them with every opportunity.”
Lewis said the TSA club began preparing for the competition as soon as the new school year started.
“Back in September, they started building robots that could be used in competitions,” Lewis said. “This was our first year, so it was kind of a trial run. We just wanted to go and see what it was like, and they did really well. ”
The VEX IQ competition pitted McFarland's robots against competitors from other schools.
“They have two different types of competition. One is the driver competition, where the driver's driving skills, how well they can manipulate the robot, are competed. They pick up blocks of different sizes and play against different blocks. has different point values and you have to put them into little boxes,” Lewis said. “Additionally, there are some automated (sections) that require actual coding skills as well, where you have to put robots in specific locations and code them to do the same tasks.”
Lewis said TSA not only helps students improve their technology skills, but also provides fun avenues such as travel, building friendships, leadership skills and personal growth.
“One of the things I like about TSA is that it promotes the ‘focus on the process rather than the actual end product’ (idea),” she said. “(Students) were like, our robot is not Nationals quality…Even before we knew we were going to go to Nationals, they were saying, 'We want to redesign this robot.' , they continue to work on the robot, redesigning parts of it to be more efficient based on what they see from other kids at State University.
Wilhelm said she would like to help set up a booster club for students so they can start raising money for next year's competition sooner.
Gabriel Davis can be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com.
want to help?
To donate to McFarland TSA's GoFundMe and help students enter the contest, visit gofund.me/cec480fd.
McFarland Middle School students inspect robots built by the Technology Student Association club for the TSA State Competition held in Seattle from March 13 to March 16.
Members of the McFarland Middle School Technology Student Association club hold up their awards after the students placed fourth at the TSA State Conference in Seattle last month.
