A group of students at Ohio Virtual Academy (OHVA) — a full-time, tuition-free, online public school for grades K-12 authorized by the Ohio Council of Community Schools — have been named fourth-place winners in Stride K12’s National Robotics Competition, a competition offered exclusively to Stride K12 students across the country. The OHVA team included Reed Wiest, an eighth-grader from Piketon, Lincoln DelGrosso, an eighth-grader from Kettering, and Connor Pritchard, a sixth-grader from Dayton.
In May, three students from OHVA — also known as the OHVA Cardinals team — participated in Stride K12’s National Robotics Competition, facing off against 11 other teams in the virtual first round. Using Cogmation Robotics software, each team member was required to develop code to navigate a maze with their robot. Progressing to the second virtual round, the OHVA Cardinals competed in a recycling challenge, instructing their robot to pick up cans and place them in a recycling bin. After a successful second round, the OHVA Cardinals and four other teams from Texas and Washington advanced to the final round.
For the final competition, each team headed to the Stride K12 headquarters in Herndon, VA to compete in person. The final challenge required the teams to initiate their code on a computer to instruct the robot to move two blocks from a starting point to a designated square on the robotics mat. Scores from the best of three rounds were used to determine winners, placing the OHVA Cardinals in fourth place.
“Reed, Lincoln, and Connor worked extremely hard over the last few months on their code, and it was encouraging to see their hard work pay off,” said Dr. Kristin Stewart, head of school at OHVA. “We’re extremely grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with Stride K12 to offer experiences like this to all our students, allowing them to explore their interests in a real-world setting.”
Robotics is just one of the many career clubs OHVA offers for students in grades 7-12. OHVA’s career clubs allow students with similar career interests to connect, practice professional skills, work on service projects, take field trips, and compete against other local, state, and national schools. In addition, OHVA students have the opportunity to take career-focused electives that are centered around high-demand career fields, such as agriculture, food and natural resources, business, education, engineering, health sciences, and information technology.
For more information about the Ohio Virtual Academy, visit https://ohva.k12.com/