Teams representing Kansas BEST were once again dominant at the regional Frontier Trails BEST Championship hosted at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith Dec. 5-6, taking three out of the top four places.

Wichita State University’s College of Engineering has hosted the annual Kansas BEST competition since 1999, including the 16th annual event on Oct. 25 when 24 teams and 500 students competed at Hartman Arena. Six teams from that competition advanced to represent Kansas BEST at the regional Frontier Trails BEST Championship Dec. 9-10.

BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology) is a sports-like robotics contest designed to motivate high school students toward careers in engineering, science and technology.

Volunteer professional engineers and school coaches guide student teams through the engineering process. Student teams have six weeks to design, develop and test a remotely controlled robot that can outperform competitors at completing a predefined task. Using only the materials in kits provided at the competition, students experienced the same problems, challenges and breakthroughs that an engineering team encounters when it takes a product to market. Students experienced team dynamics, time constraints, material constraints and pressure from other teams trying to solve the same problem.

The Kansas BEST teams participating in the regional championship included Wichita Rose Hill, Home School, Ambassadors for Christ, Circle High, Valley Center and Campus, and most of them made it to the regional semi-finals. Based on their performance at the regional competition, three of the Kansas BEST teams placed in the Game Day Awards: Ambassadors for Christ (1st); Wichita Home School (2nd); and Circle High (4th).

In addition, Wichita Home School received a 3rd place and Circle received a 4th BEST Award based on overall evaluations of each team’s project notebook, oral presentations, table display, interviews, overall spirit, sportsmanship and robot performance.

Other awards included:

• Most Photogenic: Wichita Home School (1st) and Valley Center (3rd)
• Most Robust: Wichita Home School (1st) and Ambassadors for Christ (2nd)
• Founders Award for Creativity: Wichita Home School (1st)
• Web Page Design: Wichita Home School (1st) and Circle High School (2nd)

Results from the Frontier Trails BEST Championship can be viewed at: goo.gl/7z4MIh.