The Daily News

Nine Breckenridge high school students are taking their knowledge of physics to a new level this year by competing in a robot-building challenge.

The group has joined one of 26 other teams participating in a nationwide BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology) robotics competition through North Dakota State University. The theory behind the challenge blends learning and resourcefulness - each team must design, create and build its own robot as well as form its own corporation, which will be divided into branches and led by a CEO. Teams will be judged based on the robot's performance, appearance, a brief presentation by members and the table display. Alexis Olson, group CEO, got interested in the challenge after watching a presentation on the BEST program last year while she was a Junior Engineering and Technology Society (JETS) member at Breckenridge.

"Let's build a robot instead of learning from a book," she said, recalling her suggestion to team members. "Hands-on is way better."

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Students have dedicated all of their spare time working on the project, meeting three days a week since school began to perfect their robot. Their first prototype was created out of cardboard.

Siri Manning, senior, said her physics class has become headquarters to group brainstorming and design work.

"This is our class right now," said Manning. "It's all we're doing. We've spent every day since the third, fourth day of school working on this."

Manning can often be found in the computer lab immersed in public relations work for the competition. She's had to create advertising, helped make posters and contact the public to generate interest. At first, she was worried they wouldn't actually pull it off.

"It's really coming together," she said. "It's a 100 percent learning experience...it's one thing to say you want it to move forward and backward, but it's a completely different thing to figure out how to do it."

Scott Wermerskirchen, science teacher, said he's stepped back and allowed the students to progress at their own will. Although he's made comments and suggestions, this project is clearly their own.

"So far, I've been really impressed," he said. "We're down to three weeks, so it will be interesting to see how it all plays out."

If the group gains placement, they will most likely travel South for the next step as most of the participating hub schools are located there and a Texas-based company founded BEST. Next to Fargo, students in Breckenridge would be the farthest school north to participate and require some fundraising efforts. The final competition will be Oct. 23-24 at the Civic Center in Fargo.

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