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3 Cross Keys Students Partnered with Tech Co. & Placed in Robotics Competition
Three students, Drake Peters (seventh grade), Austin Rakers (eighth grade), and Ethan Calvert (seventh grade), from Cross Keys Middle School (CKMS) in the Ferguson-Florissant School District placed in the winning alliance at the VEX Robotics Competition on Saturday, Feb. 3.
The winning alliance consisted of the top three teams of the entire competition. The competition consisted of schools across Missouri and the St. Louis area, and Illinois.
CKMS also partnered with the artificial intelligence and gaming technology company, NVIDIA Corporation, and received $1,729.90 in funding and judges for the competition. During the competition, NVIDIA also received CKMS’ Volunteer of the Year Award.
“Our students worked extremely hard for this competition,” said industrial technology teacher Eric Brown. “We’d simply love to see this grow within the coming years. I’d love to see more students getting involved and growing our teams, as well as having a second competition field.”
One of Brown’s goals is to not only get more students involved in robotics and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics), but also more boys and girls of color in the field. With the formation of the first all-girls robotics team at CKMS, Brown is confident that he will begin to see those changes soon.
“I called Eric Brown after seeing a segment on the news about the Gear Girls and wanted to know what NVIDIA could do to support Cross Keys,” said Wendy Gram, a content technician at NVIDIA.
“We want to do whatever we can to help these students succeed in the future, and encourage as many students as possible. STEAM careers require smart people to tell companies what to do, and it’s events like this that incubates that type of thinking and skill.”
The competition helped Drake Peters see the various career opportunities with this form of skill and passion.
“It’s interesting being in competitions because not only do you get to see how students in other schools built their robots, but you get to learn about their mindset that led to the thought process to build it. Just from being in this competition, I can see a possible career in mechanical engineering, or building functional robots.”
